{"title":"Farewell Rudolf Nieuwenhuys, you neuroanatomical legend.","authors":"Michel Thiebaut de Schotten","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02917-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02917-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"54"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143972105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nicola Del Maschio, Camilla Bellini, Matteo Giannachi, Gianpaolo Del Mauro, Jubin Abutalebi
{"title":"Effects of early neuroanatomical variants on reading skills and brain function in typical adult Italian readers.","authors":"Nicola Del Maschio, Camilla Bellini, Matteo Giannachi, Gianpaolo Del Mauro, Jubin Abutalebi","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02919-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02919-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reading is a core feature of human communication that develops throughout intensive academic training. Recently, a group of studies examined whether neuroanatomical variants that predate literacy acquisition may influence reading abilities at later stages of life, yielding mixed results. To complement and expand previous knowledge, we used multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate whether distinct anatomical patterns of the left occipito-temporal sulcus (OTS), which hosts the so-called \"visual word form area\" (VWFA), are predictive of reading skills and brain activity in typical adult readers. Overall, our findings indicate that: (1) the pattern of the left OTS is not predictive of participants' scores on reading fluency tests; (2) the pattern of the left OTS is not predictive of local brain activity during sentence-reading; (3) individual differences in the left OTS pattern are associated with the functional architecture of the left OTS as assessed by resting-state fMRI. In conclusion, while it is well-established that the acquisition of reading skills modifies brain structure and function, the predictive role of early neuroanatomical variants on reading skills and brain function in typical readers remains equivocal. Environmental and experience-related factors may have a greater and predominant role in accounting for ultimate reading abilities in healthy populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"55"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143962631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tyler Agyekum, Cindy L García, Felix Fay, Olivier Parent, Aurélie Bussy, Gabriel A Devenyi, M Mallar Chakravarty
{"title":"Cognitive-and lifestyle-related microstructural variation in the ageing human hippocampus.","authors":"Tyler Agyekum, Cindy L García, Felix Fay, Olivier Parent, Aurélie Bussy, Gabriel A Devenyi, M Mallar Chakravarty","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02908-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02908-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Age-related hippocampal alterations often accompany cognitive decline, a significant risk factor for dementias. Modifiable lifestyle factors may help preserve hippocampal neural tissue and slow neurodegeneration and potentially promote cognition in old age. Here, we sought to identify the relationship between lifestyle and cognition in the context of the hippocampal microstructure across the lifespan. We used data from 494 subjects (36-100 years old) without cognitive impairment from the Human Connectome Project-Ageing study. We estimated hippocampal microstructure using myelin-sensitive (T1w/T2w ratio), inflammation-sensitive (MD) and fibre-sensitive (FA) MRI markers. We identified microstructural-lifestyle/-cognition using non-negative matrix factorization to integrate MRI measures into a multivariate spatial signature of hippocampal microstructure covariance followed by partial least squares analysis. Our results reveal that the preservation of axon density and myelin in regions corresponding to subicular regions and CA1 to CA3 regions are negatively associated with age, and is associated with improved performance in executive function tasks, however, this is also associated with a decreased performance in memory tasks. We also show that microstructure is preserved across the hippocampus when there is normal hearing levels, physical fitness and insulin levels and this is negatively associated with age in the presence of cardiovascular risk factors like high body mass index, blood pressure, triglycerides and blood glucose that are in turn associated with hippocampal neurodegeneration. Taken together, our results suggest that lifestyle factors like normal hearing, physical fitness and normal insulin levels may help preserve hippocampal microstructure which may be useful in maintaining optimum performance on executive function tasks and potentially other modes of cognition.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"53"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143963066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhanced brain myelination and cognitive development in young children associated with milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) intake: a temporal cohort study.","authors":"Sean C L Deoni, Jennifer Beauchemin, Viren D'Sa","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02907-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02907-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Myelination is an important neurodevelopmental process that facilitates efficient brain messaging and connectivity, and contributes to the emergence and refinement of cognitive skills and abilities. Healthy maturation of the myelinated white matter requires coordinated delivery of key nutritional building blocks, including short and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, phospholipids, and sphingolipids. While many of these nutrients are amply supplied by breastmilk, they may not be present in sufficient quantity in infant formula milk. Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) is a rich source of phospholipids, including sphingomyelin and has been associated with improved cognitive development in infants and children when added to infant formula. To determine if added bovine MFGM is also associated with improved myelination, this study used myelin-sensitive MRI to compare myelination trends in healthy infants and toddlers, 0-2 years of age, who received the same branded infant formula with and without added bovine MFGM in two temporal cohorts: Without Added MFGM between 2010 and 2017; and With Added MFGM between 2018-2020. Concurrent with imaging, cognitive development was assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Matched for important demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, we found that children who received infant formula with added MFGM showed improved myelination in motor-related areas (motor cortices, internal capsule, and cerebellum) and improved MSEL gross and fine motor scores. No significant differences in verbal or overall cognitive ability scores were noted. These results support the importance of phospholipids, sphingolipids, and sphingomyelin in promoting brain myelination and cognitive development.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"52"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143965203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rudolf Nieuwenhuys's later studies in neuroanatomy and functional neuroimaging.","authors":"Robert Turner","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02918-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02918-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"51"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12008078/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143969441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development of the Epithalamus in Alligator mississippiensis.","authors":"Michael B Pritz","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02913-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02913-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The epithalamus is present in all vertebrates where it is a central part of the dorsal diencephalic conduction system whose functions are critical for survival. The epithalamus consists of both nuclei and tracts. Studies on the development of the epithalamus in amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals) based on cytoarchitecture have commonly been part of a larger report on the embryogenesis of the diencephalon. Of these, observations on the epithalamus of reptiles are few with limited descriptions and figures. The present analysis fills this gap in knowledge by examining the development of the epithalamus in one group of reptiles, Alligator mississippiensis, using stains for cells and fibers. The time of origin and subsequent development of the nuclei and the tracts that course through the epithalamus were determined. These data provide a basis for future studies and for comparisons with other amniotes.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"50"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143984284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kenichi Oishi, Jill S Chotiyanonta, Susumu Mori, Juan C Troncoso, Frederick A Lenz
{"title":"Identification and characterization of the thalamic ventral posterior complex by 11.7T ex vivo diffusion tensor imaging.","authors":"Kenichi Oishi, Jill S Chotiyanonta, Susumu Mori, Juan C Troncoso, Frederick A Lenz","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02915-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02915-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The thalamic ventral posterior (VP) nuclear complex includes several subnuclei, including the VPM, VPL, VPI, and VMb, each with distinct inputs, axonal trajectories, and staining properties. Understanding the three-dimensional organization of neuronal fiber structures of the VP complex is crucial for understanding intra-thalamic and thalamocortical connections related to somatosensory processing. In this study, an ex vivo block of the human brain was scanned using mesoscopic Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), and the four VP subnuclei were identified using existing histological atlases as references. The VP subnuclei were characterized using a mean diffusivity (MeanD) map, orientation-coded fractional anisotropy (FA) map, and tractography obtained from DTI. The results demonstrated differential patterns in MeanD and orientation-coded FA maps among the four subnuclei, underscoring the potential of mesoscale imaging to identify and differentiate these subnuclei. The tractography identified patterns of afferent and efferent fibers unique to each nucleus, offering insights into their functional roles in sensory processing. The findings highlighted the advantages of DTI in visualizing the direction of fibrous structures and conducting three-dimensional tractography, offering a foundation for further investigations into in vivo imaging applications and the neural mechanisms of somatosensory disorders, including central pain syndrome.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 4","pages":"49"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143979230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yunxiao Ma, Li Wang, Ting Li, Jian Zhang, Shintaro Funahashi, Jinglong Wu, Xiu Wang, Kai Zhang, Tiantian Liu, Tianyi Yan
{"title":"Disrupted coordination between primary and high-order cognitive networks in Parkinson's disease based on morphological and functional analysis.","authors":"Yunxiao Ma, Li Wang, Ting Li, Jian Zhang, Shintaro Funahashi, Jinglong Wu, Xiu Wang, Kai Zhang, Tiantian Liu, Tianyi Yan","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02909-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-025-02909-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit structural and functional alterations in both primary and high-order cognitive networks, but the interactions within aberrant functional networks and relevant structural foundation remains unexplored. In this study, the functional networks (FN) and the morphometric similarity networks (MSN) were constructed respectively based on the time-series data and gray matter volume from the MRI data of PD patients and controls. The efficiency, average controllability and k-shell values of the FN and MSN were calculated to evaluate their ability of information transmission and identify structural and functional abnormalities in PD. The abnormal regions were categorized into five types: regions with MSN abnormalities, regions with FN abnormalities, regions with both MSN and FN abnormalities, regions with abnormalities only in MSN but not in FN and regions with abnormalities only in FN but not in MSN. Further, the dynamic causal model (DCM) was used to evaluate the causal relationship of information flow between the identified regions. In the network property analysis of the FN, PD patients showed decreased global efficiency and connectivity in the visual network (VIS) and increased global efficiency in higher-order cognitive networks, including the ventral attention network (VAN), default mode network (DMN), and the limbic network (LIM) but no difference in MSN. In the DCM analysis of the regions, PD patients exhibited increased excitatory transition from the visual areas to the superior frontal gyrus, whereas had disturbed information flow from the visual areas to the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. These findings suggest changes in structural and functional brain of PD patients, and advance our understanding of PD pathogenesis from different neural dimensions.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 3","pages":"48"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143966115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In the brain of the beholder: bi-stable motion reveals mesoscopic-scale feedback modulation in V1.","authors":"Alessandra Pizzuti, Omer Faruk Gulban, Laurentius Renzo Huber, Judith Carolien Peters, Rainer Goebel","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02906-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02906-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the neural processes underlying conscious perception remains a central goal in neuroscience. Visual illusions, whether static or dynamic, provide an effective ecological paradigm for studying conscious perception, as they induce subjective experiences from constant visual inputs. While previous neuroimaging studies have dissociated perceptual interpretation of visual motion from sensory input within the motion-sensitive area (hMT+) in humans, less is known about the role of the primary visual area (V1) and its relationship to hMT+ during a bistable perception. To address this, we conducted a layer-fMRI study at 7 T with human participants exposed to a bistable motion quartet stimulus. Despite a constant sensory input, the bistable motion quartet elicits switching horizontal and vertical apparent motion percepts likely due to lateral and feedback connections across low and high-level brain regions (feedback processing). As control, we used an \"unambiguous\" version of the motion quartet, hereafter referred to as \"physical\" motion stimulus, where horizontal and vertical motion is physically presented as visual stimulus in an alternated fashion (feedforward processing). With the advantage of a sub-millimeter resolution gained at ultra-high magnetic field (7 Tesla), we aimed to unveil the differential laminar modulation of V1 (early visual area) and hMT+ (high-order visual area) during the physical and bistable condition. Our results indicate that: (1) hMT+ functional activity correlates with conscious perception during both physical and ambiguous stimuli with similar strength. There is no evidence of differential laminar profiles in hMT+ between the two experimental conditions. (2) Between inducer squares, V1 shows a significantly reduced functional response to the ambiguous stimulus compared to the physical stimulus, as it primarily reflects feedback signals with diminished feedforward input. Distinct V1 laminar profiles differentiate the two experimental conditions. (3) The temporal dynamics of V1 and hMT+ become more similar during the ambiguous condition. (4) V1 exhibits reduced specificity to horizontal and vertical motion perception during the ambiguous condition at the retinotopic locations corresponding to the perceived motion. Our findings demonstrate that during the ambiguous condition, there is a stronger temporal coupling between hMT+ and V1 due to feedback signals from hMT+ to V1. Such feedback to V1 might be contributing to the stabilization of the vivid perception of directed motion at the face of constant ambiguous stimulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 3","pages":"47"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11972204/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143787849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The knight and his queen: Rudolf Nieuwenhuys' legacy, anchored in anatomy.","authors":"Stephanie J Forkel","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02910-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00429-025-02910-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 3","pages":"46"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}