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Shin-Lei Peng¹, Sheng-Min Huang², and Chun-Chieh Chan^1
1Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ²Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan

Keywords: Gray Matter, Diffusion Tensor Imaging

A critical step in animal diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies is the use of anesthetics. Understanding the influence of specific anesthesia regimes on DTI-derived parameters is imperative when comparing results between animal studies using different anesthetics. Here, the quantification of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) under different alpha-chloralose and isoflurane is discussed. The estimated MD under isoflurane anesthesia is higher than that under alpha-chloralose anesthesia. FA quantitation was also influenced by anesthesia regimens to varying extents, depending on the brain regions and b-values. In summary, both scanning parameters and the anesthesia regimens significantly impacted quantifications of DTI indices.

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Saurabh Garg¹, Nasrin Akbari¹, Saqib Basar¹, Thanh-Duc Nguyen¹, Sean London², Yosef Chodakiewitz², Rajpaul Attariwala¹, Mostafa Fatehi³, and Sam Hashemi^1
1Voxelwise Imaging Technology Inc, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²Prenuvo, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ³Division of Neurosurgery, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Keywords: Gray Matter, Aging, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence

The volume of the hippocampus and temporal horn of the lateral ventricle provides insight into the state of neurological health and the changes in volume are associated with conditions such as traumatic brain injury¹, Alzheimer's Disease ² and treatment response. It remains an open question what are the normal age-related changes over time in hippocampal and temporal horn volumes in an average healthy population cohort. We seek to establish these baseline parameters via AI-based MRI brain segmentation and quantification techniques applied to a large cohort of screened healthy patients.

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Rita Oliveira¹, Quentin Raynaud¹, Valerij Kiselev², Ileana Jelescu³, and Antoine Lutti^1
1Laboratory for Research in Neuroimaging, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Division of Medical Physics, Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, ³Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: Gray Matter, Relaxometry

Non-exponential transverse relaxation in the brain’s basal ganglia has been investigated in theoretical studies but little evidence from in-vivo MRI data exists in support of this behaviour. Here, we provide experimental observation of non-exponential transverse relaxation in-vivo MRI data in the basal ganglia at 3T. The strongest deviations from exponential behaviour take place in the iron-rich pallidum and substantia nigra. Our results suggest that water diffusion through the inhomogeneous magnetic field induced by paramagnetic iron deposits may be at the source of non-exponential transverse relaxation in the basal ganglia.

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Zining Lu¹, Yue Cheng¹, Xianchang Zhang², Junhai Xu³, and Wen Shen^1
1Department of Radiology, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China, Tianjin, China, ²MR Collaboration, Siemens Healthcare Ltd., Beijing, China, Beijing, China, ³College of Intelligence and Computing, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, Tianjin, China

Keywords: Gray Matter, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence

To evaluate the dynamic change in overall brain health in liver transplantation (LT) recipients, we constructed a deep learning-based brain age prediction model to measure the longitudinal changes of ‘brain age’ before and one, three, and six months after surgery. The LT recipients’ brain age showed an inverted U-shaped change pattern in the early stages after transplantation. In addition, brain aging was aggravated within one month after surgery, and the patients with a history of overt hepatic encephalopathy were particularly affected. Therefore, the age prediction model can be used to monitor the post-surgical brain function recovery trajectory in LT recipients.

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André Döring¹, Frank Rösler², Kadir Şimşek^1,3, Maryam Afzali^1,4, Roland Kreis^5,6, Derek K Jones¹, Julien Valette⁷, and Marco Palombo^1,3
1Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ²Department of Mathematics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ³School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁴Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, ⁵Magnetic Resonance Methodology, Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ⁶Translational Imaging Center, sitem-insel, Bern, Switzerland, ⁷Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, MIRCen, Laboratoire des Maladies Neurodégénératives, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Paris, France

Keywords: Gray Matter, Spectroscopy, Metabolites, Diffusion, ADC, Kurtosis, Morphology, Gray Matter, Spectroscopy

This work demonstrates that metabolites diffusion and kurtosis time-dependence can be measured in vivo in the human brain using Diffusion-Weighted MR Spectroscopy (DW-MRS) and ultra-strong gradients. At short diffusion-times, DW-MRS is sensitive to cytoplasmic viscosity and short-range structures; at long diffusion-times to long-range structures. We show that modeling the diffusion-time dependence of intracellular and cell-type specific metabolites can be used to infer brain cell morphology and recover fiber radii consistent with healthy human brain histology. Furthermore, we show that water diffusion at long diffusion-times is affected by exchange between intra- and extracellular compartment, which poses challenges for microstructural modeling.

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Henning Matthias Reimann¹, Jurjen Heij², Thomas Gladytz¹, and Thoralf Niendorf^1,3
1Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.), Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, Berlin, Germany, ²Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ³Experimental and Clinical Research Center, a joint cooperation between the Charité Medical Faculty and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany

Keywords: Gray Matter, fMRI, pain, allostasis

To date, fMRI has failed to distinguish an unambiguous and reliable signature that is unique to pain. Pain is accompanied by the activation of networks related to saliency processing. Employing the high sensitivity and spatial fidelity of 7T fMRI, we disentangle these overlapping representations. We apply stimuli that are perceived as painful and others that trigger saliency-related domain-general brain activity. Applying partial least square regression, we identify modality-specific characteristics in the way domain-general patterns are orchestrated relative to each other, revealing a large number of neurosignatures that are specific to the perception of pain.

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J. Alejandro Acosta-Franco¹, Graham Little², and Christian Beaulieu^1
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, ²Computer Science, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

Keywords: Gray Matter, Diffusion Tensor Imaging

The brain cortex is thin and has a complex morphology making it difficult to analyze with in vivo diffusion MRI. A high-resolution 1.5 mm isotropic diffusion MRI protocol and an automated cortex segmentation methodology on the diffusion images alone was used to assess cortical diffusion changes over the healthy lifespan (n=165, 5-74 years). The diffusion metrics versus age trajectories differed across the cortical surface despite similar cortical thickness reductions with age. The most robust age changes were for axial diffusivity (quadratic U) and radiality (cubic) potentially reflecting changes in columnar microstructural organization of the cortex in typical development and aging.

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Mark Bitsch Vestergaard¹, Jens Christian Laursen², Niels Søndergaard Heinrich², Peter Rossing², Tine Willum Hansen², and Henrik Bo Wiberg Larsson^1
1Clinic for Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, Denmark, ²Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark

Keywords: Gray Matter, Diabetes, Cerebrovascular function

Patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1D) demonstrate brain alterations including gray matter (GM) atrophy. We examined whether a GM reduction could be related to cerebrovascular dysfunction. GM volume was measured by anatomical MRI. Cerebrovascular function was examined by measuring cerebral blood flow, oxygen metabolism and lactate concentration in response to inhalation of hypoxic air using phase-contrast MRI and MRS. T1D patients were evaluated for albuminuria as indication of vessel damages. Patients with T1D and albuminuria had reduced GM compared to patients with normal kidney function or healthy controls, however, the GM atrophy could not be related to cerebrovascular dysfunction.

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Wanqing Shen¹, Yingqian Chen¹, Shu Su¹, Yujian Liang¹, Pei Xiang¹, Long Qian², and Zhiyun Yang^1
1The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China, ²ge health care, Guangzhou, China

Keywords: Gray Matter, Gray Matter, SMA,FreeSurfer,cerebral cortex

The study investigated brain structure changes in type 2 and 3 SMA patients and their correlation with the severity of clinical symptoms. MRI examinations were performed on 3.0T MRI scanner and 3D T1W data were analyzed using FreeSurfer.The result showed SMA patients had extensive, multifocal, symmetrical gray white matter degeneration.The postcentral gyrus is strongly associated with symptom severity in SMA patients. It might be explained by the fact that motor neurons exhibit functional alterations, leading to selective motor neuron loss. So it is crucial for brain development and cognitive development if we intervene in SMA disease in an early stage.

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Yutong L. Sun^1,2, Jordan A. Chad², and J. Jean Chen^1,2
1Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ²Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada

Keywords: Gray Matter, Aging

Aging-related changes in diffusion as measured by diffusion MRI (dMRI) of the white matter (WM) are often interpreted as being driven degeneration of myelinated axons and neurites, but the validity of this tensor (DTI) interpretation of the dMRI signal has never been tested in the cortex. In this study, age-related cortical diffusion variations were assessed using metrics derived from DTI and  from the orthogonal-moment diffusion-tensor decomposition (DT-DOME) method. We demonstrate that the tensor interpretation of aging-related dMRI variations are most likely inadequate in the cortex.

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Helge J. Zöllner^1,2,3,4, Thomas A. Thiel^3,4, Markus S. Jördens⁵, Dieter Häussinger⁵, Georg Oeltzschner^1,2, Markus Butz³, Hans-Jörg Wittsack⁴, Alfons Schnitzler³, and Eric Bechler^4
1The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Kennedy Krieger Institute, F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, ⁴Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, ⁵Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectiology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

Keywords: Gray Matter, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping, Hepatic encephalopathy

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common neurological manifestation of liver cirrhosis characterized by altered brain microstructure and metabolism. Here, Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) was performed in a well-characterized cohort of HE patients and correlated with metabolite estimates derived from GABA-edited MR spectroscopy. Deep-brain gray matter micro-susceptibility was significantly altered in the bilateral pallidum and dentate nuclei in HE patients. These results were closely linked to metabolite estimates and clinical metrics.

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Alessio Fracasso¹, Katarina Moravkova¹, Jasper Fabius¹, Rosanne Timmermann¹, and Anna Gaglianese^2
1University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom, ²Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: Gray Matter, fMRI (task based), saccade, high-field, modelling

Here we implemented a variation of the population receptive field model (pRF, Dumoulin et al., 2008; Fracasso et al., 2016), to model blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal and obtain estimates of saccade tuning direction and width from human PPC, to obtain estimates of the population motor fields (pMF).

Saccade tuning width shows a novel organizational property of human posterior parietal cortex, unveiling a gradient from posterior to anterior PPC, with tuning width steadily increasing along the posterior-anterior axis.

Jiahui Zheng¹, Jiankun Dai², Xiangxiang Wu¹, and Haifeng Shi^1
1Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Changzhou NO.2 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, changzhou, China, ²GE Healthcare, MR Research China, Beijing, China

Keywords: Gray Matter, Diffusion/other diffusion imaging techniques

    This study aimed to investigate the abnormal cerebral micro-structures related to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and further predict individual cognitive function in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. Specially, diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), mediation analysis, and the least squares support vector regression machine (LSSVRM) were utilized to conduct our study. We observed that aberrant micro-structures partially mediated the association between clinical risk factors and MCI, which is a novel insight into the progression of cognitive dysfunction. The combination of DKI metrics and clinical characteristics could be used as features to efficiently predict cognitive function associated with ESRD.

Zhiyong Zhao¹, Zuozhen Cao¹, Qinfeng Zhu¹, Liangying Zhu¹, Sihui Li¹, Keqing Zhu^2,3, Jing Zhang^2,3, and Dan Wu^1
1Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ²China Brain Bank and Department of Neurology in Second Affiliated Hospital, Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Zhejiang Province, and Department of Neurobiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China, ³Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital and School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Keywords: Gray Matter, Ex-Vivo Applications, cortical laminae, microstructure, magnetic susceptibility, human brain

Although recent high-resolution functional MRI studies have revealed laminar-specific cortical activity in the human brain, the underlying structural underpinning remains unclear. The present study collected submillimeter-resolution MR images from 10 ex-vivo human hemispheres. We computed the microstructural metrics and magnetic susceptibility for each sample at different cortical depths. We found that the cortical microstructure and magnetic susceptibility showed a depth-dependent pattern, which varied in different cortical regions. The cortical profiles were then correlated with cell density and myelin content obtained from histological staining. These findings may help to understand the structural basis of laminar brain function.

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Sharadhi Umesh Bharadwaj¹, Tales Santini², Joel D.K Disu¹, Busola Oluwole³, Enrico M. Novelli^4,5,6, Tamer S Ibrahim^7,8,9, and Sossena Wood^1,10
1Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ³University of Washington/Fred Hutch, Seattle, WA, United States, ⁴Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁵Department of Hematology/Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁶Sickle Cell Center of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁷Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁸Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁹Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ¹⁰Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Keywords: Gray Matter, High-Field MRI, Sickle cell disease, cortical thickness, cortical volume

The study compares cortical thickness and volume between patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and healthy controls (HC). There were no significant differences in the cortical thickness and volume of the whole brain between HC and patients with SCD. We found significant differences (p<0.05) in the temporal and parietal regions between HC and patients with SCD. We found significant differences in the parietal and frontal lobes between severe SCD (HbSS) and HC. Between patients with mild SCD (HbSC and HbSβ+thalassemia) and HC, significant differences in cortical thickness in the inferior parietal and lateral occipital regions were found.

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Alexander S. Atalay¹, Benjamin T. Newman², and T. Jason Druzgal^2
1Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, East Greenwich, RI, United States, ²Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States

Keywords: Gray Matter, Adolescents, Screen Time

Increased screen usage during adolescent development correlates with a complex response in the brain. Using a massive longitudinal human brain MRI dataset, we describe relationships between screen time and cellular microstructure across 13 cortical regions previously implicated in screen usage. Longitudinally, grey matter density had no relationship with screen time, and fractional anisotropy was significantly associated with screen time in only the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. However, microstructural 3T-CSD diffusion MRI metrics were significantly associated with increased screen time in 8 regions. The comparison between these results and typical age-associated development suggests potential negative implications of increased screen usage during adolescence.

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Mitchel Lee¹, Russell Murdoch^1,2, Mboka Jakob³, Fenella Kirkham², and Karin Shmueli^1
1Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Imaging and Biophysics, Developmental Neurosciences, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom, ³Department of Radiology & Imaging, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Keywords: Gray Matter, Susceptibility

Although sickle cell anaemia (SCA) affects the brain, causing stroke and neurocognitive complications, its pathophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) reveals alterations in tissue composition. Therefore, we applied QSM to investigate changes in brain susceptibility in 168 SCA patients compared to 47 healthy controls scanned at 1.5 Tesla in Tanzania. We found a significant susceptibility decrease in SCA vs. controls in the caudate nucleus and globus pallidus and a significant increase in susceptibility in the red nucleus and dentate. Blood haemoglobin levels had a significant positive correlation with susceptibility in the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus and putamen.

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Tae-Hoon Kim¹, Youe Ree Kim², Chang-Won Jeong¹, ByoungRyun Kim³, Chungsub Lee¹, SiHyeong Noh¹, DongWook Lim¹, and Young Hwan Lee^2
1Medical Convergence Research Center, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea, Republic of, ²Radiology, Wonkwang University School of Medicine and Hospital, Iksan, Korea, Republic of, ³Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wonkwang University School of Medicine and Hospital, Iksan, Korea, Republic of

Keywords: Gray Matter, Aging, menopause

Among recent voxel based-morphometry (VBM) technique, DARTEL (Diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration Through Exponentiated Lie Algebra)-based VBM method can provide powerful information to understanding morphologic variations in whole brain areas. In women, several VBM studies reported unveiling the brain morphologic reductions (putamen, pallidum, hippocampus, postcentral gyrus, frontal/paritetal/temporal gyrus, and so on) after menopause. These studies provided menopause-related brain centers in postmenopausal women; however these morphologic findings might be included potentially case-sensitive results as a consequence of the enrolled population. This study was performed a multicentric study to evaluate cerebral morphological changes in menopausal women by using a DARTEL-based VBM method.

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Bhaswati Roy¹, Sarah E. Choi², Matthew J. Freeby³, and Rajesh Kumar^1,4,5,6
1Anesthesiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ²UCLA School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ³Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ⁴Radiology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ⁵Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ⁶Brain Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Keywords: Gray Matter, Diabetes

Patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) show brain tissue changes in mood and cognitive control sites, functions that are deficient in the condition. However, the extent of brain gray matter volume loss in various sites, as well as progression of volume loss with time in controlled and uncontrolled T2DM adults are unclear. We observed higher gray matter volume loss in crucial brain areas involved in cognition and mood control in T2DM adults with uncontrolled glucose levels and accelerated progression after 6-months of follow-up. These findings indicate the need for optimal glucose management in T2DM adults.

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Shinjini Kundu¹, Stephanie Barsoum², Jeanelle Ariza³, Amber L Nolan³, C. Dirk Keene³, Peter J Basser⁴, and Dan Benjamini^2
1The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, ⁴National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD, United States

Keywords: Gray Matter, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence

Histology-based cellular composition and tissue architecture provide the biological basis for the brain’s cytoarchitectonic areas and for characterizing neuropathology. Noninvasive methods to assess cortical cyto- and myeloarchitectonic features are therefore urgently needed. In an ex vivo human brain study, we used multidimensional diffusion-relaxation MRI to investigate changes in spectral signatures with cortical depth. We designed an unsupervised segmentation procedure that captures this information and provides cortical laminar maps, which were co-registered to histological images and compared. The ability to map cortical cytoarchitectonic features noninvasively makes multidimensional MRI a promising tool for studying whole-brain cortical organization.