We used the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method to investigate brain interhemispheric functional connectivity changes in patients with optic neuritis (ON). A total of 22 ON patients and 22 healthy controls (HCs) closely matched in age, sex, and weight were enrolled. All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Functional interaction between the hemispheres was assessed with the VMHC method. Correlation analysis was applied to explore the association between altered VMHC values in different brain areas and cognitive features. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was applied to distinguish ON patients from HCs. Compared with HCs, ON patients had obviously reduced VMHC values in the right superior temporal gyrus, left margin superior gyrus, right superior motor cortex, and left middle cingulate gyrus. a negative relationship between best-corrected visual acuity and VMHC values in left margin superior gyrus was found, besides, the VMHC values within the right superior motor cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus were also anti-correlated with the Hamilton Depression Scales. The ROC curve displayed high diagnostic values in those altered regions. Abnormal VMHC values may reflect the underlying neuropathologic mechanism of ON.

To explore the relationship between cognitive function and blood–brain barrier leakage in non-brain metastasis lung cancer and healthy controls. 75 lung cancers without brain metastasis and 29 healthy controls matched with age, sex, and education were evaluated by cognitive assessment, and the Patlak pharmacokinetic model was used to calculate the average leakage in each brain region according to the automated anatomical labeling atlas. After that, the relationships between cognitive and blood–brain barrier leakage were evaluated. Compared with healthy controls, the leakage of bilateral temporal gyrus and whole brain gyrus were higher in patients with lung cancers (P < 0.05), mainly in patients with advanced lung cancer (P < 0.05), but not in patients with early lung cancer (P > 0.05). The cognitive impairment of advanced lung cancers was mainly reflected in the damage of visuospatial/executive, and delayed recall. The left temporal gyrus with increased blood–brain barrier leakage showed negative correlations with delayed recall (r = -0.201, P = 0.042). An increase in blood–brain barrier leakage was found in non-brain metastases advanced lung cancers that corresponded to decreased delayed recall. With progression in lung cancer staging, blood–brain barrier shows higher leakage and may lead to brain metastases and lower cognitive development.

Although excited behavior in patients with schizophrenia has been linked to brain structural abnormalities, whether cortical abnormalities in this subgroup are related to cognitive impairment or peripheral immune responses is unknown. We included 28 patients with excitability (EC), 28 patients without excitability (NEC), and 48 healthy controls (HCs) to evaluate the associations. Compared with the HC group, the EC and NEC groups showed significant cognitive impairment and increased serum cytokine levels. Analysis of variance in whole-brain grey matter volume (GMV) showed that the volumes of several brain areas, including the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), superior temporal gyrus, and cingulate gyrus, were decreased in patients with schizophrenia. Notably, the left SFG volume was significantly lower in the EC group than in the NEC group. Spearman correlation analysis showed that elevated cytokines were negatively correlated with the GMV of the bilateral SFG, bilateral inferior parietal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, right fusiform gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus, which were mainly positive correlated with cognitive tests. Moreover, interleukin 4 may contribute to poor scores on Brief Assessment of Cognition and Neuropsychological Assessment Battery by reducing the left SFG volume (17%, Pmediation = 0.044; and 24%, Pmediation = 0.040,respectively). In conclusion, our results confirm GMV changes in excited patients with schizophrenia, and characterize the GMV as an important interface between inflammatory cytokines and cognitive impairment. Therefore, targeted anti-inflammatory adjuvant antipsychotic therapy may improve cognitive function and volumetric brain abnormalities in these patients.

Psychological resilience is characterized as the ability to recover from stress, which is essential for sleep quality. However, the neurological underpinnings of psychological resilience and the neural substrates of the links between psychological resilience and sleep quality in healthy brains remain not well understood. To address these issues, we adopted the method of resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) analysis in 144 young college students. The functional connectivity analysis indicated that psychological resilience was associated with the middle frontal gryus (MFG) functional connectivity, which mainly involved the right middle cingulum gyrus (rMCG), the right precentral gyrus (rPreCG), the left postcentral gyrus (lPoCG), and the left thalamus. Furthermore, mediation analysis suggested that psychological resilience played a mediating role in the relationship between MFG functional connectivity and sleep quality. Overall, the current study offered further evidence forthe neurological underpinningsof psychological resilience and provided new insights into the relationship between psychological resilience and sleep quality from a neural basis perspective.

This study aimed to determine the minimal scanning duration of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for producing individualized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targets that are superior to the group-level targets. This study included 30 healthy subjects and 20 depressive patients with high-sampled fMRI data (> 69min). We computed suboptimal targets by gradually increasing the scanning duration beginning at 6min. The suboptimal target connectivity and spatial distance to the optimal target (based on the full-duration scanning data) were compared to an anatomically fixed target from a group analysis (termed as the group target). These analyses were repeated for healthy subjects and depressive patients, as well as for target masks in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). As the scanning duration increased, the suboptimal targets gradually approached the optimal targets in the healthy subjects. Compared with the group targets, the suboptimal targets in the DLPFC showed higher connectivity strength after 10min of data collection and shorter spatial distance after 40min. Similar results were found in major depressive patients. In the IPL, the minimal scanning duration decreased to 6 and 8min for connectivity strength and distance, respectively. These findings provide an important reference for individualized target definition in terms of scanning duration, which may standardize connectivity-based personalized studies. Future research is needed to further validate the therapeutic effects of the approach.

Self-compassion is beneficial for individuals' emotional health, but debates regarding its conceptualization are increasing. The present study aimed to explore the neural basis of self-compassion and its compassionate and uncompassionate dimensions and the indirect path from neural basis to emotional health. Structural MRI and Resting-state fMRI data were used to measure the gray matter volume (GMV) and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in 88 healthy college students. We found that individuals with higher self-compassion had decreased GMV in the prefrontal cortex, cerebellum as well as lower ALFF in the occipital lobe. The compassionate and uncompassionate dimensions of self-compassion shared some similarities (e.g., common correlation with GMV in the medial prefrontal cortex, ALFF in the occipital lobe) but also had some differences (e.g., only uncompassionate dimensions correlated with GMV in the lateral prefrontal cortex, ALFF in medial temporal lobe/striatum). The indirect path analyses revealed that corresponding brain characteristics could have associations with emotional health through self-compassion, as well as its uncompassionate dimension, but not compassionate dimension. This exploratory whole-brain study showed some preliminary findings that compassionate and uncompassionate dimensions of self-compassion were related to distinct brain regions, which are both important to the current conceptualization of self-compassion and intervention study.

Diversity of participants in biomedical research with respect to race, ethnicity, and biological sex is crucial, particularly given differences in disease prevalence, recovery, and survival rates between demographic groups. The objective of this systematic review was to report on the demographics of neuroimaging studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The Web of Science database was used and data collection was performed between June 2021 to November 2021; all articles were reviewed independently by at least two researchers. Articles utilizing MR data acquired in the United States, with n ≥ 10 human subjects, and published between 2010–2020 were included. Non-primary research articles and those published in journals that did not meet a quality control check were excluded. Of the 408 studies meeting inclusion criteria, approximately 77% report sex, 10% report race, and 4% report ethnicity. Demographic reporting also varied as function of disease studied, participant age range, funding, and publisher. We anticipate quantitative data on the extent, or lack, of reporting will be necessary to ensure inclusion of diverse populations in biomedical research.

Both methamphetamine use disorder (MAUD) and heroin use disorder (HUD) implicated in substance-induced psychosis, but the psychiatirc symptoms induced by MAUD and HUD are significantly different. The functional network organizations that may underlie these differences remains unknown. Image data was acquired by resting-state fMRI from 19 MAUD patients, 21 HUD patients, and 20 healthy controls. The small-world properties, node attributes, and functional connectivity of brain regions were analyzed among the three groups. Psychiatric status was evaluated by the Symptom Checklist 90 in all participants. The MAUD patients had significantly higher psychiatric scores than the controls and HUD patients. Both MAUD and HUD patients still had economical small-world properties. The MAUD patients showed increased nodal efficiency and betweenness centrality in the right inferior occipital gyrus, left insular lobe, bilateral Heschl gyrus, and bilateral superior temporal gyrus, while the node attributes decreased in the right parahippocampal gyrus and right hippocampus compared to the HUD patients. The MAUD patients also showed reduced edge connectivity between left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and left middle occipital gyrus (MOG), as well as between bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral superior occipital gyrus (SOG), left MOG, or right cuneus. In the MAUD group, the functional connection between left dlPFC and left MOG was negatively correlated with depression, while the connection between right cuneus lobe and right OFC was negatively correlated with depression and interpersonal sensitivity. These brain regions related to cognitive, emotional, and auditory/visual regulation may play an important role in the psychiatric symptoms of MAUD.

Computational imaging and quantitative biomarkers offer invaluable insights in the pre-symptomatic phase of neurodegenerative conditions several years before clinical manifestation. In recent years, there has been a focused effort to characterize pre-symptomatic cerebral changes in familial frontotemporal dementias using computational imaging. Accordingly, a systematic literature review was conducted of original articles investigating pre-symptomatic imaging changes in frontotemporal dementia focusing on study design, imaging modalities, data interpretation, control cohorts and key findings. The review is limited to the most common genotypes: chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72), progranulin (GRN), or microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) genotypes. Sixty-eight studies were identified with a median sample size of 15 (3–141) per genotype. Only a minority of studies were longitudinal (28%; 19/68) with a median follow-up of 2 (1–8) years. MRI (97%; 66/68) was the most common imaging modality, and primarily grey matter analyses were conducted (75%; 19/68). Some studies used multimodal analyses 44% (30/68). Genotype-associated imaging signatures are presented, innovative study designs are highlighted, common methodological shortcomings are discussed and lessons for future studies are outlined. Emerging academic observations have potential clinical implications for expediting the diagnosis, tracking disease progression and optimising the timing of pharmaceutical trials.

Little is known about the underlying neurobiological mechanisms in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We aimed to examine cortical thickness and surface area in individuals with OCD and their unaffected siblings, comparing them to healthy controls. 30 patients with OCD, 21 unaffected siblings (SIB) and 30 controls underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Structural images were analyzed using the FreeSurfer software package (version 6.0). Compared to healthy controls, both OCD and SIB groups showed significantly lower cortical thickness in the right anterior insula. Surface areas of the superior frontal gyrus, paracentral gyrus and precuneus of the right hemisphere were also reduced in OCD patients compared to controls. There were no significant differences in cortical thickness and surface area between the OCD and SIB groups. We did not detect any significant differences in subcortical volumes between groups. Lower cortical thickness in the right anterior insula in both OCD patients and unaffected siblings may represent a potential structural endophenotype for OCD.