Structural MR Analyses of Drug Exposed Brains

描述(由申请人提供)： 我们的小组建议进行实验，利用已经在成人磁共振成像上使用的自动分割工具来分析一组结构磁共振扫描，这些扫描是从宫内接触可卡因的儿童获得的。分析将包括皮质下结构的形状和轮廓分析，以及皮质结构的分析，包括测量皮质体积、表面积、厚度和将整个皮质分割到特定皮质区域的折叠模式。通过在布朗大学建立一个协作成像联盟，我们的计划将专注于研究接触可卡因和酒精的8至12岁儿童的结构性磁共振数据。到目前为止，他和他的成像团队已经从14个这样的人那里收集了数据，我们分析了这些数据并提供了试点数据，从而证明了拟议研究的可行性和分析能力。将在药物暴露人群上进行测试的生物学假设得到了PER初步数据的支持，即可卡因和酒精导致的大脑发育变化会导致特定皮质下结构的大小和形状以及特定皮质区域的体积和折叠模式的特定变化。我们对形状分析的研究最初集中在胼胝体上，在之前的研究中，其他人的研究表明，由于产前接触酒精，其形状发生了变化。我们的形态计量学研究集中在特定的皮质(眶-额叶、额叶和前扣带回)和皮质下(尾状核、壳核)结构上，我们假设这些结构会因产前接触可卡因而发生特定的改变，从而导致注意力、反应性和反应性的功能缺陷。此外，我们还提出了实验来验证我们的自动分割和形态测量方法，以识别可卡因和酒精引起的暴露儿童大脑结构的大小、形状和轮廓的差异。通过开发和应用这些工具，我们不仅将解决一个临床上重要的问题，而且我们将开发出对其他从事儿科神经成像研究的人具有普遍价值的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our group proposes experiments to utilize automated segmentation tools that have been utilized on Adult MRIs to analyze a set of structural MR scans obtained from children exposed to cocaine in utero. The analysis will include both shape and contour analysis of subcortical structures, as well as the analyses of cortical structures including measurement of cortical volume, surface area, thickness, and folding pattern of the entire cortex parcellated in to specific cortical areas. By forming a collaborative imaging alliance at Brown University, our proposal will be focused on studying structural MR data from cocaine and alcohol exposed 8 to 12-year-olds. To date he and his imaging group have collected data from 14 such individuals, which we have analyzed and provide pilot data from, thereby demonstrating the feasibility and analytic power of the proposed studies. The biologic hypotheses to be tested on the drug exposed population, supported by per preliminary data, is that cocaine and alcohol induced alterations in brain development produce specific alterations in the size and shape of particular subcortical structures, and in the volume and folding pattern of particular cortical areas. Our study of shape analysis has initially focus on the corpus callosum, which in previous studies by others was shown to be altered in shape as a result of prenatal exposure to alcohol. Our morphometric studies have focused on particular cortical (orbito-frontal, frontal, and anterior cingulate) and subcortical (caudate, putamen) structures that we hypothesize are specifically altered by prenatal exposure to cocaine, with resulting functional deficits in attention, reactivity, and responsivity. We additionally propose experiments to validate our automated segmentation and morphometric methods to identify cocaine and alcohol-induced differences in the size, shape and contour brain structures of exposed children. By developing and applying such tools we will not only address a clinically important problem, but we will develop methods that will be of general value to others pursuing pediatric neuroimaging studies.