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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings in Children and Adolescents With Chronic Kidney Disease: Preliminary

Waverly Harrell1, Debbie S Gipson2, Aysenil Belger3

  • 1School of Education, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.

Seminars in Nephrology
|December 17, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) show altered brain activation patterns during working memory tasks, suggesting a neurological basis for cognitive challenges. These findings highlight differences in brain activity between pediatric CKD patients and healthy controls.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pediatric Nephrology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children is associated with cognitive difficulties.
  • Understanding the neural underpinnings of these cognitive deficits is crucial for effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate functional brain activity differences in children with CKD during a visual-spatial working memory task.
  • To identify specific brain regions and activation patterns associated with cognitive function in pediatric CKD.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
  • Comparison of brain activation between 21 children with CKD and 11 healthy controls during a visual-spatial working memory task.
  • Analysis of brain region activation during encoding and retrieval phases of the task.

Main Results:

  • Both groups activated similar brain regions, but with significant differences in activation patterns.
  • Children with CKD exhibited lower activation in posterior cingulate, anterior cingulate, precuneus, and middle occipital gyrus during encoding.
  • Children with CKD showed greater activation in superior temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and insula during encoding, and in the postcentral gyrus during retrieval, with underactivation in posterior cingulate, medial frontal gyrus, occipital lobe, and middle temporal gyrus.

Conclusions:

  • Preliminary findings suggest a neurological basis for cognitive difficulties in pediatric chronic kidney disease.
  • Altered brain activation patterns in CKD children during working memory tasks indicate neurocognitive dysfunction.
  • This study provides a foundation for future research into the neural mechanisms of neurocognitive (dys)function in pediatric CKD.

Keywords:
brain-behavior relationships in pediatric CKDfMRIpediatric chronic kidney disease

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