Morphometric in vivo evidence of thalamic atrophy correlated with cognitive and motor dysfunction in Huntington's disease: The IMAGE-HD study

Lisa S Furlong; David Jakabek; Brian D Power; Conor Owens-Walton; Fiona A Wilkes; Mark Walterfang; Dennis Velakoulis; Gary Egan; Jeffrey Cl Looi; Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111048

Morphometric in vivo evidence of thalamic atrophy correlated with cognitive and motor dysfunction in Huntington's disease: The IMAGE-HD study

Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2020 Apr 30:298:111048. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111048. Epub 2020 Feb 19.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia; John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Electronic address: furlong@student.unimelb.edu.au.
² Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
³ School of Medicine Fremantle, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Australia; Clinical Research Centre, North Metropolitan Health Service - Mental Health, WA, Australia.
⁴ Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia.
⁵ Neuropsychiatry Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶ School of Psychological Sciences and The Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health Monash University, Clayton, Australia; Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, Australia; Life Sciences Computation Centre, Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative, Melbourne, Australia.
⁷ Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, Australia; Neuropsychiatry Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁸ School of Psychological Sciences and The Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health Monash University, Clayton, Australia.

PMID: 32120305
DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111048

Abstract

In Huntington's disease (HD), neurodegeneration causes progressive atrophy to the striatum, cortical areas, and white matter tracts - components of corticostriatal circuitry. Such processes may affect the thalamus, a key circuit node. We investigated whether differences in dorsal thalamic morphology were detectable in HD, and whether thalamic atrophy was associated with neurocognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor dysfunction. Magnetic resonance imaging scans and clinical outcome measures were obtained from 34 presymptomatic HD (pre-HD), 29 early symptomatic HD (symp-HD), and 26 healthy control individuals who participated in the IMAGE-HD study. Manual region of interest (ROI) segmentation was conducted to measure dorsal thalamic volume, and thalamic ROI underwent shape analysis using the spherical harmonic point distribution method. The symp-HD group had significant thalamic volumetric reduction and global shape deflation, indicative of atrophy, compared to pre-HD and control groups. Thalamic atrophy significantly predicted neurocognitive and motor dysfunction within the symp-HD group only. Thalamic morphology differentiates symp-HD from pre-HD and healthy individuals. Thalamic changes may be one of the structural bases (endomorphotypes), of the endophenotypic neurocognitive and motor manifestations of disease. Future research should continue to investigate the thalamus as a potential in vivo biomarker of disease progression in HD.

Keywords: Huntington's disease; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neuroimaging; Thalamus.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Atrophy / pathology
Cognitive Dysfunction / etiology
Cognitive Dysfunction / physiopathology*
Humans
Huntington Disease / complications
Huntington Disease / diagnostic imaging
Huntington Disease / pathology*
Huntington Disease / physiopathology*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Thalamus / diagnostic imaging
Thalamus / pathology*