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Whole-brain Segmentation and Change-point Analysis of Anatomical Brain MRI—Application in Premanifest Huntington's Disease
Published on: June 9, 2018
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Functional brain changes underlying irritability in premanifest Huntington's disease.
Jan Van den Stock1,2, François-Laurent De Winter1,2, Rawaha Ahmad3,4
1Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Psychiatry Research Group, Leuven, Belgium.
Human Brain Mapping
|April 11, 2015
Summary
Irritability in premanifest Huntington's disease (preHD) is linked to brain changes. PreHD patients show striatal atrophy and altered brain activity during anger recall, impacting emotion regulation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Genetics
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Huntington's disease (HD) presents with motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms.
- Irritability is a significant early manifestation in premanifest HD (preHD).
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify functional and structural brain changes associated with irritability in preHD.
- To understand the early pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric symptoms in HD.
Main Methods:
- Functional MRI during emotional recall (anger, sadness, happiness, neutral).
- Structural MRI to assess brain volume.
- Comparison between 20 preHD carriers and 20 gene-negative controls.
Main Results:
- PreHD group exhibited striatal atrophy and higher irritability ratings.
- Increased anger-selective brain activation in preHD in regions including the pulvinar and cingulate cortex.
- Decreased anger-selective amygdala activation in preHD, correlated with striatal volume.
Conclusions:
- Anger experience in preHD is associated with altered brain activity in emotion regulation networks.
- These brain changes correlate with behavioral and volumetric measures.
- Provides insight into early neuropsychiatric symptom development in preHD.
