Magnetic resonance imaging markers reflect cognitive outcome after rehabilitation in children with acquired brain injury.

PURPOSE: To test markers from conventional and diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as possible predictors of cognitive outcome following rehabilitation therapy in children with acquired brain injury (ABI). METHODS: Twenty-one children (10 boys, mean age 11.6 years, range 7.1-19.4) with stroke or traumatic brain injury underwent MRI including Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) before admission to the rehabilitation centre. The conventional images were scored according to a standardised injury scoring system, and mean Fractional Anisotropy (FA) was determined within the Corpus Callosum (CC), as this structure is hypothesised to play an important role in cognition. Both conventional MRI injury scores and mean FA of the CC and its sub-regions were compared with standard functional cognitive outcome scores. Relationships between MRI indices and cognitive outcome scores were assessed using multiple regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. RESULTS: A backwards regression analysis revealed that the mean FA of the CC body and genu and the supratentorial injury score appear to represent the best predictors of outcome, together with the age at rehabilitation and time in rehabilitation. In the ROC analysis, the mean FA values of the CC body and genu and the infratentorial injury score provided the highest sensitivity, while the mean FA of the CC splenium showed the highest specificity for outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The conventional MRI injury scores and DTI metrics from the CC reflect cognitive outcomes following rehabilitation. Neuroimaging methods such as MRI with DTI may therefore provide important markers for cognitive recovery after brain injury.

Structural brain correlates associated with professional handball playing.

BACKGROUND: There is no doubt that good bimanual performance is very important for skilled handball playing. The control of the non-dominant hand is especially demanding since efficient catching and throwing needs both hands. METHODOLOGY/HYPOTHESES: We investigated training-induced structural neuroplasticity in professional handball players using several structural neuroimaging techniques and analytic approaches and also provide a review of the literature about sport-induced structural neuroplastic alterations. Structural brain adaptations were expected in regions relevant for motor and somatosensory processing such as the grey matter (GM) of the primary/secondary motor (MI/supplementary motor area, SMA) and somatosensory cortex (SI/SII), basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum and in the white matter (WM) of the corticospinal tract (CST) and corpus callosum, stronger in brain regions controlling the non-dominant left hand. RESULTS: Increased GM volume in handball players compared with control subjects were found in the right MI/SI, bilateral SMA/cingulate motor area, and left intraparietal sulcus. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial diffusivity were increased within the right CST in handball players compared with control women. Age of handball training commencement correlated inversely with GM volume in the right and left MI/SI and years of handball training experience correlated inversely with radial diffusivity in the right CST. Subcortical structures tended to be larger in handball players. The anatomical measures of the brain regions associated with handball playing were positively correlated in handball players, but not interrelated in control women. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Training-induced structural alterations were found in the somatosensory-motor network of handball players, more pronounced in the right hemisphere controlling the non-dominant left hand. Correlations between handball training-related measures and anatomical differences suggest neuroplastic adaptations rather than a genetic predisposition for a ball playing affinity. Investigations of neuroplasticity specifically in sportsmen might help to understand the neural mechanisms of expertise in general.