Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 11:13:1011304.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.1011304. eCollection 2022.

Disruption of white matter integrity and its relationship with cognitive function in non-severe traumatic brain injury

Aimi Nadhiah Abdullah  1 , Asma Hayati Ahmad  1   2 , Rahimah Zakaria  1 , Sofina Tamam  3 , Aini Ismafairus Abd Hamid  2   4   5 , Wen Jia Chai  2   4 , Hazim Omar  2   4   5 , Muhammad Riddha Abdul Rahman  2   4 , Diana Noma Fitzrol  2   5 , Zamzuri Idris  2   4   5 , Abdul Rahman Izaini Ghani  2   4   5 , Wan Nor Azlen Wan Mohamad  2   4   5 , Faiz Mustafar  2   4   5 , Muhammad Hafiz Hanafi  2   4   5 , Mohamed Faruque Reza  2   4   5 , Hafidah Umar  2   4   5 , Mohd Faizal Mohd Zulkifly  2   4   5 , Song Yee Ang  2   4   5 , Zaitun Zakaria  2   4   5 , Kamarul Imran Musa  6 , Azizah Othman  7 , Zunaina Embong  8 , Nur Asma Sapiai  9 , Regunath Kandasamy  10 , Haidi Ibrahim  2   11 , Mohd Zaid Abdullah  2   11 , Kannapha Amaruchkul  12 , Pedro Antonio Valdes-Sosa  13   14 , Maria Luisa Bringas Vega  13   14 , Bharat Biswal  15 , Jitkomut Songsiri  16 , Hamwira Sakti Yaacob  17 , Putra Sumari  18 , Nor Azila Noh  19 , Azlinda Azman  20 , Paramjit Singh Jamir Singh  20 , Jafri Malin Abdullah  2   4   5
Affiliations

Disruption of white matter integrity and its relationship with cognitive function in non-severe traumatic brain injury

Aimi Nadhiah Abdullah et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Background: Impairment in cognitive function is a recognized outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the degree of impairment has variable relationship with TBI severity and time post injury. The underlying pathology is often due to diffuse axonal injury that has been found even in mild TBI. In this study, we examine the state of white matter putative connectivity in patients with non-severe TBI in the subacute phase, i.e., within 10 weeks of injury and determine its relationship with neuropsychological scores.

Methods: We conducted a case-control prospective study involving 11 male adult patients with non-severe TBI and an age-matched control group of 11 adult male volunteers. Diffusion MRI scanning and neuropsychological tests were administered within 10 weeks post injury. The difference in fractional anisotropy (FA) values between the patient and control groups was examined using tract-based spatial statistics. The FA values that were significantly different between patients and controls were then correlated with neuropsychological tests in the patient group.

Results: Several clusters with peak voxels of significant FA reductions (p < 0.05) in the white matter skeleton were seen in patients compared to the control group. These clusters were located in the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, and cingulum, as well as white matter fibers in the area of genu of corpus callosum, anterior corona radiata, superior corona radiata, anterior thalamic radiation and part of inferior frontal gyrus. Mean global FA magnitude correlated significantly with MAVLT immediate recall scores while matrix reasoning scores correlated positively with FA values in the area of right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus and left anterior corona radiata.

Conclusion: The non-severe TBI patients had abnormally reduced FA values in multiple regions compared to controls that correlated with several measures of executive function during the sub-acute phase of TBI.

Keywords: diffusion MRI; fractional anisotropy; neuropsychological test; tract-based spatial statistic; traumatic brain injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TBSS analysis of white matter skeleton. Voxels demonstrating significantly (p < 0.05) decreased FA values for the subjects with TBI compared with the control group are shown in red-yellow. Voxels were thickened into local tracts and overlaid on the white matter skeleton (green).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Masks of nine ROIs selected from the results of whole-brain group comparison overlaid on MNI152 template brain.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlation between FA and matrix reasoning scores in the region of right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus, left anterior corona radiata and right superior longitudinal fasciculus in TBI patients.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Correlation between FA and MAVLT immediate recall in the region of genu of corpus callosum and right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus in TBI patients.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Correlation between MD and RCFT immediate and delayed scores in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus in TBI patients.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bramlett H, Dietrich WD. Long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury: current status of potential mechanisms of injury and neurological outcomes. J Neurotrauma. (2015) 32:1834–48. 10.1089/neu.2014.3352 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Palacios EM, Fernandez-Espejo D, Junque C, Sanchez-Carrion R, Roig T, Tormos JM, et al. . Diffusion tensor imaging differences relate to memory deficits in diffuse traumatic brain injury. BMC Neurol. (2011) 11:24. 10.1186/1471-2377-11-24 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ng SY, Lee AYW. traumatic brain injuries: pathophysiology and potential therapeutic targets. Front Cell Neurosci. (2019) 13:528. 10.3389/fncel.2019.00528 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Frieden TR, Houry D, Baldwin G. Report to congress on traumatic brain injury in the United States: epidemiology and rehabilitation. (2015). Available online at: https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/pdf/tbi_report_to_congress_epi_... (accessed July 04 2022).
    1. Semple BD, Zamani A, Rayner G, Shultz SR, Jones NC. Affective, neurocognitive and psychosocial disorders associated with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic epilepsy. Neurobiol Dis. (2019) 123:27–41. 10.1016/j.nbd.2018.07.018 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources