Patients who suffer from dissociative identity disorder present unique scientific and clinical challenges for psychology and psychiatry. We have been fortunate in working with a patient who-while undergoing functional MRI-can switch rapidly and voluntarily between her main personality (a middle-aged, high-functioning woman) and an alternate personality (a 4-6-year-old girl). A unique task was designed to isolate the processes occurring during the switches between these personalities.
Improved understanding of the pattern of white matter changes in early and prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) states such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is necessary to support earlier preclinical detection of AD, and debate remains whether white matter changes in MCI are secondary to gray matter changes. We applied neuropsychologically based MCI criteria to a sample of normally aging older adults; 32 participants met criteria for MCI and 81 participants were classified as normal control (NC) subjects. Whole-head high resolution T1 and diffusion tensor imaging scans were completed.
Cerebellar functional circuitry has been examined in several prior studies using resting fMRI data and seed-based procedures, as well as whole-brain independent component analysis (ICA). Here, we hypothesized that ICA applied to functional data from the cerebellum exclusively would provide increased sensitivity for detecting cerebellar networks compared to previous approaches. Consistency of group-level networks was assessed in two age- and sex-matched groups of twenty-five subjects each.
Although hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and is highly prevalent in African Americans, little is known about how blood pressure (BP) affects brain-behavior relationships in this population. In predominantly Caucasian populations, high BP is associated with alterations in frontal-subcortical white matter and in executive functioning aspects of cognition. We investigated associations among BP, brain structure, and neuropsychological functioning in 52 middle-older-age African Americans without diagnosed history of CVD.
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) in elderly individuals with vascular diseases are presumed to be due to ischemic small vessel diseases; however, their etiology is unknown. We examined the cross-sectional relationship between cerebrovascular hemodynamics and white matter structural integrity in elderly individuals with vascular risk factors. White matter hyperintensity volumes, fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) were obtained from MRI in 48 subjects (75±7years).
Prior studies have documented a range of brain changes that occur as a result of healthy aging as well as neural alterations due to profound dysregulation in vascular health such as extreme hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and stroke. In contrast, little information exists about the more transitionary state between the normal and abnormal physiology that contributes to vascular disease and cognitive decline.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine whether amyloid imaging can help predict the location and number of future hemorrhages in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).
Possession of the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele and diabetes risk are independently related to reduced white matter (WM) integrity that may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The purpose of this study is to examine the interactive effects of APOE4 and diabetes risk on later myelinating WM regions among healthy elderly individuals at risk of AD. A sample of 107 healthy elderly (80 APOE4-/27 APOE4+) individuals underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging/diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
Studies have shown that early life trauma may influence neural development and increase the risk of developing psychological disorders in adulthood. We used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the impact of early life trauma on the relationship between current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and cortical thickness/subcortical volumes in a sample of deployed personnel from Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom.
