Logo image
Hypoplasia of cerebellar afferent networks in Down syndrome revealed by DTI-driven tensor based morphometry
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Hypoplasia of cerebellar afferent networks in Down syndrome revealed by DTI-driven tensor based morphometry

Nancy Raitano Lee, Amritha Nayak, M Okan Irfanoglu, Neda Sadeghi, Catherine J Stoodley, Elizabeth Adeyemi, Liv S Clasen and Carlo Pierpaoli
Scientific reports, v 10(1), pp 5447-5447
25 Mar 2020
PMID: 32214129
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61799-1View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0 Open

Abstract

Adolescent Adult Anisotropy Anthropometry - methods Atrophy Cerebellum - abnormalities Cerebellum - anatomy & histology Cerebellum - diagnostic imaging Cerebellum - pathology Child Diffusion Tensor Imaging - methods Down Syndrome - diagnostic imaging Down Syndrome - pathology Female Humans Male White Matter - pathology Young Adult
Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigations of brain anatomy in children and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) are limited, with no diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies covering that age range. We used DTI-driven tensor based morphometry (DTBM), a novel technique that extracts morphometric information from diffusion data, to investigate brain anatomy in 15 participants with DS and 15 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) controls, ages 6-24 years (mean age ~17 years). DTBM revealed marked hypoplasia of cerebellar afferent systems in DS, including fronto-pontine (middle cerebellar peduncle) and olivo-cerebellar (inferior cerebellar peduncle) connections. Prominent gray matter hypoplasia was observed in medial frontal regions, the inferior olives, and the cerebellum. Very few abnormalities were detected by classical diffusion MRI metrics, such as fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. Our results highlight the potential importance of cerebro-cerebellar networks in the clinical manifestations of DS and suggest a role for DTBM in the investigation of other brain disorders involving white matter hypoplasia or atrophy.

Metrics

16 Record Views
22 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
Logo image