Cognitive Deficits and Altered Functional Brain Network Organization in Pediatric Brain Tumor Patients

Published: March 29, 2021, 1:03 a.m.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.04.22.055459v1?rss=1 Authors: Anandarajah, H., Seitzman, B. A., McMichael, A., Dworetsky, A., Coalson, R. S., Jiang, C., Gu, H., Barbour, D. L., Schlaggar, B. L., Limbrick, D. D., Rubin, J. B., Shimony, J. S., Perkins, S. M. Abstract: Pediatric brain tumor survivors experience significant cognitive sequelae from their diagnosis and treatment. The exact mechanisms of these injuries are poorly understood, and validated predictors of cognitive outcome are lacking. The current study aims to determine if there are abnormalities in functional brain network organization and cognitive performance in pediatric brain tumor patients, measured via resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) and the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, respectively. Further, we assess potential relationships between changes in brain network architecture and behavior in the patients. Patients ages 4-18 years old with diagnosis of a brain tumor underwent awake rsfMRI during regularly scheduled clinical imaging and were tested with the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Overall, functional brain network organization was significantly different in patients compared to age- and sex-matched healthy controls (p < 0.001). Network integrity within the dorsal attention network was particularly affected, with 86% of patients having connectivity strength 2+ SD below the mean of controls (p < 0.0001). Moreover, cognitive testing of patients demonstrated significant impairments in multiple domains, including attention (p < 0.05, FDR corrected). Finally, a significant amount of variance of age-adjusted total composite scores from the Toolbox was explained by changes in segregation between the dorsal attention and default mode networks as well as sex (R2 = 0.52, p < 0.05). Pediatric brain tumor patients demonstrated statistically significant deficits in multiple cognitive domains and multiple abnormalities in brain network architecture. Thus, rsfMRI may provide insight into neural systems that underlie these changes in cognitive function, suggesting that these metrics may serve as a biomarker for cognitive performance. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info