BACKGROUND:Neuroimaging studies suggest that social distress and suicidal vulnerability share common cerebral bases. Moreover, increased peripheral inflammatory activity is involved in both social distress and suicidal behavior.OBJECTIVE:To evaluate, in suicidal and non-suicidal individuals, the association between the activation of specific cerebral regions (anterior cingulate, insula and orbitofrontal cortex) during experimental social exclusion and the baseline blood levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2).METHODS:In total, 101 euthymic women were recruited: 42 suicide attempters (SA), 40 affective controls (AC), and 19 healthy controls (HC). During functional MRI (fMRI), they performed the Cyberball game, a validated social exclusion task. Blood levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-2 were measured prior to fMRI. The activation of insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during the explicit social exclusion (ESE) vs social inclusion (INC) conditions of the Cyberball game was analyzed in function of the baseline cytokine levels.RESULTS:IL-1β was negatively associated with right OFC activation (p = 0.01) in ESE vs. INC, whereas IL-2 was positively associated with activation of the right ACC (p = 0.02), insula (p = 0.002) and OFC (p = 0.004) in ESE vs. INC. These associations remained significant after controlling for group, indicating that they were independent of the suicidal status.CONCLUSION:Baseline IL-1β and IL-2 blood levels are differentially associated with cerebral activation involved in the perception of social exclusion, independently of suicidal behavior. Our results may help to better understand the role of basal inflammation in social distress and its link with mood disorder pathophysiology.

The relation of white matter hyperintense lesions to episodic memory impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) is still controversial. We aimed at evaluating the relation between white matter hyperintense lesions and episodic memory decline in patients with PD. In this multicentric prospective study, twenty-one normal controls, 15 PD patients without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 13 PD patients with MCI were selected to conduct a clinico-radiological correlation analysis. Performance during episodic memory testing, age-related white matter changes score, total manual and automated white matter hyperintense lesions volume and lobar white matter hyperintense lesions volumes were compared between groups using the Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and correlations were assessed using the Spearman test. MCI PD patients had impaired free recall. They also had higher total, left prefrontal and left temporal white matter hyperintense lesions volumes than normal controls. Free recall performance was negatively correlated with the total white matter hyperintense lesions volume, either manually or automatically delineated, but not with the age-related white matter changes score. Using automated segmentation, both the left prefrontal and temporal white matter hyperintense lesions volumes were negatively correlated with the free recall performance. Early episodic memory impairment in MCI PD patients may be related to white matter hyperintense lesions, mainly in the prefrontal and temporal lobes. This relation is influenced by the method used for white matter hyperintense lesions quantification. Automated volumetry allows for detecting those changes.

Background and purposeThe aim of this longitudinal study is to evaluate large-scale perioperative resting state networks reorganization in patients with diffuse low-grade gliomas following awake surgery.Materials and methodsEighty-two patients with diffuse low-grade gliomas were prospectively enrolled and underwent awake surgical resection. Resting-state functional images were acquired at three time points: preoperative (MRI-1), immediate postoperative (MRI-2) and three months after surgery (MRI-3). We simultaneously performed perfusion-weighted imaging.

Poststroke, the ipsilesional upper limb shows slight but substantial and long-term motor deficits.;To define brain activation patterns during a gross motor flexion/extension task of the ipsilesional elbow early poststroke before and after rehabilitation, in relation to the corresponding kinematic characteristics at each time point.;Simultaneous analysis of kinematic features (amplitude, frequency, smoothness, and trajectory of movement) and of corresponding functional magnetic resonance imaging activations (block-design). A total of 21 persons with subacute initial severe stroke (Fugl-Meyer score <30/66) participated twice: within the first 2 months poststroke (V0) and after 6 weeks of rehabilitation (V1). Results at both time points were compared with activation patterns and kinematics of 13 healthy controls.;Compared with controls ( a) movements of the ipsilesional upper-limb poststroke were smaller (V0 + V1) and less smooth (V0 + V1) and ( b) participants poststroke showed additional recruitment of the contralesional middle temporal gyrus (V0) and rolandic opercularis involved in movement visualization (V0 + V1), whereas they lacked activation of the supramarginal gyrus (V0 + V1). Over time, participants poststroke showed an extended activation of the contralesional sensorimotor cortex at V0.;Movements of the ipsilesional upper limb within an initially severe stroke group were not only atypical in motor outcome, but seemed to be controlled differently. Together the observed changes pointed toward an overall disturbance of the bihemispheric motor network poststroke, marked by ( a) a possible despecialization of the nondamaged hemisphere and ( b) the employment of alternative control strategies to ensure optimal task execution.

The link between cerebral vasoreactivity and cognitive status in multiple sclerosis remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate a potential decrease of cerebral vasoreactivity in multiple sclerosis patients and correlate it with cognitive status.;Thirty-three patients with multiple sclerosis (nine progressive and 24 remitting forms, median age: 39 years, 12 males) and 22 controls underwent MRI with a hypercapnic challenge to assess cerebral vasoreactivity and a neuropsychological assessment. Cerebral vasoreactivity, measured as the cerebral blood flow percent increase normalised by end-tidal carbon dioxide variation, was assessed globally and by regions of interest using the blood oxygen level-dependent technique. Non-parametric statistics tests were used to assess differences between groups, and associations were estimated using linear models.;;Cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis may be mediated through decreased cerebral vasoreactivity. Cerebral vasoreactivity could therefore be considered as a marker of cognitive decline in multiple sclerosis.;• Cerebral vasoreactivity does not differ between multiple sclerosis patients and controls. • Cerebral vasoreactivity measure is linked to cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis. • Cerebral vasoreactivity is linked to level of education in multiple sclerosis.