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Parenting behavior is thought to affect child brain development, with implications for mental health. However, longitudinal studies that use whole-brain approaches are lacking. In this study, we investigated associations between parenting behavior, age-related changes in whole-brain functional connectivity, and psychopathology symptoms in children and adolescents.

ObjectiveUsing a biopsychosocial framework and the three-factor fatigue model, we aimed to (1) plot recovery of fatigue over the 3 months following paediatric concussion and (2) explore factors associated with persisting fatigue during the first 3 months postconcussion.Methods240 children and adolescents aged 5–18 years (M=11.64, SD=3.16) completed assessments from time of injury to 3 months postinjury. Separate linear mixed effects models were conducted for child and parent ratings on the PedsQL-Multidimensional Fatigue Scale to plot recovery across domains (General, Cognitive, Sleep/Rest) and Total fatigue, from 1 week to 3 months postinjury. Two-block hierarchical regression analyses were then conducted for parent and child ratings of fatigue at each time point, with age, sex and acute symptoms in block 1 and child and parent mental health variables added to block 2.ResultsThere was a significant reduction in both child and parent ratings across the 3 months postinjury for all fatigue domains (all p<0.001). For both child and parent fatigue ratings, child mental health was the most significant factor associated with fatigue at all time points. Adding child and parent mental health variables in the second block of the regression substantially increased the variance explained for both child and parent ratings of fatigue.ConclusionOur findings confirm that fatigue improves during the first 3 months postconcussion and highlights the importance of considering child and parent mental health screening when assessing patients with persisting postconcussive symptoms.

Purpose: The neuroimaging research community—which includes a broad range of scientific, medical, statistical, and engineering disciplines—has developed many tools to advance our knowledge of brain structure, function, development, aging, and disease. Past research efforts have clearly shaped clinical practice. However, translation of new methodologies into clinical practice is challenging. Anything that can reduce these barriers has the potential to improve the rate at which research outcomes can contribute to clinical practice. Methods: Karawunlinks analysis workflows created using open-source neuroimaging software, to Brainlab (Brainlab AG, Munich, Germany), a commercially available surgical planning and navigation suite. Karawunachieves this using DICOM standards supporting representation of 3D structures, including tractography streamlines, and thus offers far more than traditional screenshot or color overlay approaches. Results: We show that neurosurgical planning data, created from multimodal imaging data using analysis methods implemented in open-source research software, can be imported into Brainlab. The datasets can be manipulated as if they were created by Brainlab, including 3D visualizations of white matter tracts and other objects. Conclusion: Clinicians can explore and interact with the results of research neuroimaging pipelines using familiar tools within their standard clinical workflow, understand the impact of the new methods on their practice and provide feedback to methods developers. This capability has been important to the translation of advanced analysis techniques into practice at our institution.

ObjectiveTo explore whether regional brain volume and white matter microstructure at term-equivalent age (TEA) are associated with development at 2 years of age in children born moderate–late preterm (MLPT).Study designA cohort of MLPT infants had brain MRI at approximately TEA (38–44 weeks’ postmenstrual age) and had a developmental assessment (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment) at 2 years’ corrected age. Relationships between cortical grey matter and white matter volumes and 2-year developmental outcomes were explored using voxel-based morphometry. Relationships between diffusion tensor measures of white matter microstructure (fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial (AD), radial (RD) and mean (MD) diffusivities) and 2-year developmental outcomes were explored using tract-based spatial statistics.Results189 MLPT children had data from at least one MRI modality (volumetric or diffusion) and data for at least one developmental domain. Larger cortical grey and white matter volumes in many brain regions, and higher FA and lower AD, RD and MD in several major white matter regions, were associated with better cognitive and language scores. There was little evidence that cortical grey matter and white matter volumes and white matter microstructure were associated with motor and behavioural outcomes.ConclusionsRegional cortical grey matter and white matter volumes and white matter microstructure are associated with cognitive and language development at 2 years of age in MLPT children. Thus, early alterations to brain volumes and microstructure may contribute to some of the developmental deficits described in MLPT children.

Children born extremely preterm (EP; < 28 weeks of gestation) or extremely low birth weight (ELBW; < 1000 g) are at increased risk of working memory deficits compared with their term-born peers and may benefit from working memory training. This study aimed to determine whether Cogmed Working Memory Training®, compared with a placebo training program, was associated with changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsfc) and whether these changes correlated with working memory performance in EP/ELBW children. Twenty-one 7-year-old EP/ELBW children were enrolled in a double-blinded randomized controlled trial and had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessments (Cogmed, n= 12; placebo (a non-adaptive version of Cogmed), n= 9). Prior to training (baseline) and 2 weeks post-training, all children received a cognitive assessment, inclusive of immediate memory and working memory measures and an MRI. The Cogmed Improvement Index was used as a measure of improvement in trained activities in the Cogmed group. Resting-state functional MRI was used to measure training-related changes in intra- and inter-network rsfc. The networks assessed include the default mode network, the left and right central executive networks, the bilateral executive network, the dorsal attention network, and the salience network. rsfc data were compared between treatment groups and investigated in relation to changes in working memory performance. There was little evidence of differences in intra- or inter-network rsfc strength changes from baseline to post-training between treatment groups. In the Cogmed group, working memory performance was associated with increased rsfc from baseline to post-training within the precuneus network, but not in the placebo group. In the Cogmed group, results that did not survive multiple comparison correction further showed that improvement in trained activities was associated with increased rsfc between the left central and bilateral executive networks, and with decreased rsfc within the right central executive network and between the right central executive and salience networks. Changes in rsfc may facilitate working memory performance following Cogmed training. Further studies are needed to investigate how changes in rsfc are associated with behavioral changes to better support working memory in vulnerable groups.

Cognitive training can improve working memory in children at risk of working memory difficulties; however, response to training can vary and doubt exists if working memory improvements can be sustained long- term. This study aimed to explore whether child motivation and family environment are associated with working memory trajectories in children born extremely preterm or extremely low birth weight. Forty-five 7-year-old children completed Cogmed Working Memory Training® at home over 5–7 weeks. Children and their families completed working memory tests and child motivation and family environment questionnaires at baseline, with working memory further tested 2 weeks, 12 months and 24 months post-training. Latent growth modelling was used to explore whether child motivation and family environment factors were associated with working memory trajectories. Children’s desire for challenge, training competence, and being from a single-parent household were associated with short-term improvements in verbal short-term memory. Children from poorer functioning families were associated with short-term improvements in working memory. There was little evidence that child motivation or family environment was associated with long-term working memory changes. Child motivation and the training environment may be important for understanding training effects in children born extremely preterm or extremely low birth weight, and warrant closer examination in working memory training studies.

Empathy, which is important for social functioning and mental health, is recognized to have both cognitive and affective components. While several studies have demonstrated unique neural underpinnings of empathy components in adults, few have investigated this in young people. Investigating associations between empathy and brain functional connectivity during childhood is beneficial to begin to build a comprehensive picture of the neural correlates of empathy across the lifespan. One hundred and twelve children (52% female, mean age 10 years) underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans including a resting-state sequence and completed empathy self-report measures. Seed-to-whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity analyses demonstrated that higher affective empathy (affective sharing and empathic distress) was associated with weaker connectivity between key hubs of the default mode network (DMN) and other widespread areas in the brain. Analyses of resting-state networks demonstrated that higher cognitive empathy was associated with both stronger and weaker connectivity between dorsal and lateral regions of the DMN and regions outside of the DMN, including the pre- and postcentral gyrus, and the cerebellum. Higher affective sharing was associated with greater connectivity between the anterior salience network and the pre- and postcentral gyrus. However, these associations did not withstand correction for multiple models. While interpretations should be made cautiously, findings suggest wide-ranging and diffuse connectivity patterns may be related to several components of empathy in children. These findings could indicate a more complex picture of the neural correlates of empathy processes in childhood, with less specialization and more widespread involvement of regions and networks. Future studies should attempt to replicate these findings using different measurement approaches.

Schizophrenia is a disorder with a pronounced developmental component. Accordingly, there is a growing interest in characterizing developmental changes in the period leading up to disease onset, in an effort to develop effective preventative interventions. One of the ongoing neurodevelopmental changes known to occur in the late adolescent period that often overlaps with the prodromal phase and time of onset is white matter development and myelination. In this critical review, a disruption in the normal trajectory of white matter development could potentially play an important role in the onset of psychosis. We seek to summarize the existing state of research on white matter development in prodromal subjects, with a particular focus on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures. First, we describe the physiological basis of developmental white matter changes and myelination. Next, we characterize the pattern of white matter changes associated with typical development across adolescence as measured with DTI. Then, we discuss white matter changes observed in adult patients with schizophrenia and in individuals seen in genetic and clinical high risk states. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for future research directions and for potential therapeutic interventions.

Recent neuroimaging investigations have identified a relationship between psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia and abnormal brain connectivity. On the basis of the continuum model of psychosis, it was hypothesized that schizotypal traits in healthy control participants would be associated with relatively impaired frontotemporal white matter health as assessed using diffusion tensor imaging. Twenty-one participants (12 women and 9 men aged 18 to 58 years) completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) and underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scanning as part of a larger study. White matter integrity for the major association fibre tracts was assessed using standard measures of diffusivity, specifically fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial and radial diffusivity. A series of negative binomial regressions yielded significant relationships between reduced FA in seven white matter tracts and increased scores on the SPQ cognitive-perceptual factor. These findings are consistent with research relating brain connectivity to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, suggesting that the neurobiological bases of schizotypal personality in healthy controls may be analogous to the neurobiological bases of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a high-risk and often prodromal state for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is characterised by isolated episodic memory impairment. Functional neuroimaging studies in healthy subjects consistently report left prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during verbal episodic memory encoding. The PFC activation at encoding is related to semantic processing which enhances memory. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether impaired verbal episodic memory in aMCI is related to PFC dysfunction. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we compared 10 aMCI patients with 10 elderly controls during verbal encoding. The encoding task was sensitive to the effects of semantic processing. Subsequent recognition was tested to measure encoding success. Behavioural results revealed impaired recognition and a lower false recognition rate for semantically related distracters (lures) in aMCI, which suggest impaired semantic processing at encoding. Both groups activated left hemispheric PFC, insula, premotor cortex and cerebellum, but group comparisons revealed decreased activation in left ventrolateral PFC in the aMCI group. The magnitude of activation in left ventrolateral PFC during encoding was positively correlated with recognition accuracy in the control group but not in the aMCI group. We propose that verbal episodic memory impairment in aMCI is related to PFC dysfunction which affects semantic processing at encoding.

Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated changes in brain function in cognitively normal subjects at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (AMCI) carries a high risk of developing into Alzheimer's disease. In AMCI altered cortical activation has been demonstrated during memory tasks, using functional MRI (fMRI). Memory and attention are closely related cognitive functions. It is unclear whether the memory impairment of AMCI is associated with attentional deficits of the sort likely to be revealed by tasks requiring divided attention. Ten older adults (mean age 72 years, range 57–81 years) with AMCI were compared with healthy matched controls on divided attention and passive sensory processing tasks using fMRI. During the divided attention task both groups activated similar regions of left hemispheric prefrontal and extrastriate visual cortex. However, the AMCI group had attenuated prefrontal activation compared with age matched controls. On the passive sensory processing task there was no difference between the AMCI and control groups. We conclude that there are changes in the functional network subserving divided attention in patients with AMCI as reflected in the attenuation of prefrontal cortical activation. These findings have implications for evaluating cognition in AMCI and also for monitoring the effects of future treatments in AMCI.

Longitudinal MRI analysis is essential to accurately describe neuroanatomical changes over time. Loss of participants to followup (dropout) in longitudinal studies is inevitable and can lead to great difficulty in interpretation of statistical results if dropout is correlated with a study outcome or exposure. Beyond this, technical aspects of longitudinal MRI analysis require specialised processing pipelines to improve reliability while avoiding bias towards individual timepoints. In this article we test whether there is an additional problem that must be considered in longitudinal imaging studies, namely whether dropout has an impact on the function of FreeSurfer, a popular software pipeline used to estimate important structural brain metrics.

Central nervous system deficits are well described in type 1 diabetes (T1D); however the brain regions most affected and the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. This prospective study aimed to use functional MRI (fMRI) and a working memory task (WMT) to assess changes in brain function between euglycemia (5.0 ± 0.5mmol/l) and hypoglycemia (2.6 ± 0.5mmol/l) or hyperglycemia (18-20 ± 0.5 mmol/l) in youth aged 12-18 y with T1D. Exclusion criteria: HbA1c > 9.0%, IQ < 70, prior history of DKA, seizure, neurological disease or substance abuse.