Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 25, Issue 34, Pages 7840-7846Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1722-05.2005
Keywords
Williams syndrome; brain imaging; sulcal depth; visuospatial construction; intraparietal sulcus; MRI; cortical surface models
Categories
Funding
- Intramural NIH HHS Funding Source: Medline
- NINDS NIH HHS [NS35102, R01 NS035102] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Although gyral and sulcal patterns are highly heritable, and emerge in a tightly controlled sequence during development, very little is known about specific genetic contributions to abnormal gyrification or the resulting functional consequences. Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder caused by hemizygous microdeletion on chromosome 7q11.23 and characterized by abnormal brain structure and striking cognitive ( impairment in visuospatial construction) and behavioral (hypersocial/anxious) phenotypes, offers a unique opportunity to study these issues. We performed a detailed analysis of sulcal depth based on geometric cortical surface representations constructed from high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans acquired from participants with WS and from healthy controls who were matched for age, sex, and intelligence quotient, and compared between-group differences with those obtained from a voxel-based morphometry analysis. We found bilateral reductions in sulcal depth in the intraparietal/occipitoparietal sulcus ( PS) in the brains of participants with WS, as well as in the collateral sulcus and the orbitofrontal region in the left hemisphere. The left-hemisphere PS in the WS group averaged 8.5mm shallower than in controls. Sulcal depth findings in the PS corresponded closely to measures of reduced gray matter volume in the same area, providing evidence that the gray matter volume loss and abnormal sulcal geometry may be related. In the context of previous functional neuroimaging findings demonstrating functional alterations in the same cortical regions, our results further define the neural endophenotype underlying visuoconstructive deficits in WS, set the stage for defining the effects of specific genes, and offer insight into genetic mechanisms of cortical gyrification.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available