White matter correlates of cognition: A diffusion magnetic resonance imaging study
Behavioural Brain Research. 2025-01-01; 476: 115222
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115222
Parsaei M(1), Barahman G(2), Roumiani PH(3), Ranjbar E(4), Ansari S(5), Najafi
A(4), Karimi H(4), Aarabi MH(6), Moghaddam HS(7).
Author information:
(1)Maternal, Fetal & Neonatal Research Center, Family Health Research Institute,
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
(2)School of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tehran Medical Sciences
Branch, Tehran, Iran.
(3)School of Medicine, Azerbaijan Medical University, Baku, Azerbaijan.
(4)School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
(5)Psychosomatic Medicine Research Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex,
Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
(6)Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; Padova
Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
(7)Psychiatry and Psychology Research Center, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran
University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address:
.
BACKGROUND: Our comprehension of the interplay of cognition and the brain
remains constrained. While functional imaging studies have identified cognitive
brain regions, structural correlates of cognitive functions remain
underexplored. Advanced methods like Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DMRI)
facilitate the exploration of brain connectivity and White Matter (WM) tract
microstructure. Therefore, we conducted connectometry method on DMRI data, to
reveal WM tracts associated with cognition.
METHODS: 125 healthy participants from the National Institute of Mental Health
Intramural Healthy Volunteer Dataset were recruited. Multiple regression
analyses were conducted between DMRI-derived Quantitative Anisotropy (QA) values
within WM tracts and scores of participants in Flanker Inhibitory Control and
Attention Test (attention), Dimensional Change Card Sort (executive function),
Picture Sequence Memory Test (episodic memory), and List Sorting Working Memory
Test (working memory) tasks from National Institute of Health toolbox. The
significance level was set at False Discovery Rate (FDR)