A cognitive-stimulation tool was created to regulate functional connectivity within the brain Default-Mode Network (DMN). Computerized exercises were designed based on the hypothesis that repeated task-dependent coactivation of multiple DMN regions would translate into regulation of resting-state network connectivity. Forty seniors (mean age: 65.90 years; SD: 8.53) were recruited and assigned either to an experimental group (n=21) who received one month of intensive cognitive stimulation, or to a control group (n=19) who maintained a regime of daily-life activities explicitly focused on social interactions. An MRI protocol and a battery of neuropsychological tests were administered at baseline and at the end of the study. Changes in the DMN (measured via functional connectivity of posterior-cingulate seeds), in brain volumes, and in cognitive performance were measured with mixed models assessing group-by-timepoint interactions. Moreover, regression models were run to test gray-matter correlates of the various stimulation tasks. Significant associations were found between task performance and gray-matter volume of multiple DMN core regions. Training-dependent up-regulation of functional connectivity was found in the posterior DMN component. This interaction was driven by a pattern of increased connectivity in the training group, while little or no up-regulation was seen in the control group. Minimal changes in brain volumes were found, but there was no change in cognitive performance. The training-dependent regulation of functional connectivity within the posterior DMN component suggests that this stimulation program might exert a beneficial impact in the prevention and treatment of early AD neurodegeneration, in which this neurofunctional pathway is progressively affected by the disease.
Pubmed ID: 26688237 RIS Download
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A toolbox for SPM which provides routines for region of interest analysis. Features include region of interest definition, combination of regions of interest with simple algebra, extraction of data for regions with and without SPM preprocessing (scaling, filtering), and statistical analyses of ROI data using the SPM statistics machinery.
View all literature mentionsA user-friendly convenient toolkit to calculate Functional Connectivity (FC), Regional Homogeneity (ReHo), Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF), Fractional ALFF (fALFF), Gragner causality and perform statistical analysis. You also can use REST to view your data, perform Monte Carlo simulation similar to AlphaSim in AFNI, calculate your images, regress out covariates, extract Region of Interest (ROI) time courses, reslice images, and sort DICOM files.
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