Searching the Resource Information Network
Are you sure you want to leave this community? Leaving the community will revoke any permissions you have been granted in this community.
Breast cancer survivors, particularly those treated with chemotherapy, are at significantly increased risk for long-term cognitive and neurobiologic impairments. These deficits tend to involve skills that are subserved by distributed brain networks. Additionally, neuroimaging studies have shown a diffuse pattern of brain structure changes in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer survivors that might impact large-scale brain networks.
Pubmed ID: 22632066
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
This is the website of the Structural Brain Mapping Group at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Jena. Our principal research focuses on the development of methods for structural brain imaging and their application. Specific areas of interest include the investigation of structural brain plasticity and schizophrenia research. Regional structural brain changes are among the most robust biological findings in schizophrenia, yet the underlying pathophysiological changes remain poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that abnormal neuronal/dendritic plasticity is related to alterations in membrane lipids. We examined whether serum activity of membrane lipid remodeling/repairing cytosolic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) were related to regional brain structure in magnetic resonance images (MRI). The study involved 24 schizophrenia patients, who were either drug-nave or off antipsychotic medication, and 25 healthy controls. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis of T1-high-resolution MRI-images, we correlated both gray matter and white matter changes with serum PLA2-activity. PLA2 activity was increased in patients, consistent with previous findings. VBM group comparison of patients vs. controls showed abnormalities of frontal and medial temporal cortices/hippocampus, and left middle/superior temporal gyrus in first-episode patients. Group comparison of VBM/ PLA2-correlations revealed a distinct pattern of disease-related interactions between gray/white matter changes in patients and PLA2-activity: in first-episode patients (n = 13), PLA2-activity was associated with structural alterations in the left prefrontal cortex and the bilateral thalamus. Recurrent-episode patients (n = 11) showed a wide-spread pattern of associations between PLA2-activity and structural changes in the left (less right) prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex, the left (less right) thalamus and caudate nucleus, the left medial temporal and orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulum, and the cerebellum. Our findings demonstrate a potential association between membrane lipid biochemistry and focal brain structural abnormalities in schizophrenia. Differential patterns in first-episode vs. chronic patients might be related to PLA2-increase at disease-onset reflecting localized regenerative activity, whereas correlations in recurrent- episode patients might point to less specific neurodegenerative aspects of disease progression.
View all literature mentionsAa brain network visualization tool, which can help researchers to visualize structural and functional connectivity patterns from different levels in a quick, easy, and flexible way.
View all literature mentionsMatlab based cross platform software package for computation, display, and analysis of functional connectivity in fMRI (fcMRI). Used for resting state data (rsfMRI) as well as task related designs. Covers pipeline from raw fMRI data to hypothesis testing.
View all literature mentions