International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience, 2014
Human brain is extraordinarily complex and yet its origin is a simple tubular structure. Its deve... more Human brain is extraordinarily complex and yet its origin is a simple tubular structure. Its development during the fetal period is characterized by a series of accurately organized events which underlie the mechanisms of dramatic structural changes during fetal development. Revealing detailed anatomy at different stages of human fetal brain development provides insight on understanding not only this highly ordered process, but also the neurobiological foundations of cognitive brain disorders such as mental retardation, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar and language impairment. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and histology are complementary tools which are capable of delineating the fetal brain structures at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. In this review, the structural development of the fetal brains has been characterized with DTI and histology. Major components of the fetal brain, including cortical plate, fetal white matter and cerebral wall layer between the ventricle and ...
ABSTRACT Professional military training makes tough demands on soldiers’ perceptual and motor ski... more ABSTRACT Professional military training makes tough demands on soldiers’ perceptual and motor skills, as well as on their physical fitness and cognitive capabilities in the course of preparation for stressful operational environments. In this pilot study we attempted to identify difference in pattern of neural responses between extensively trained, professional mission-ready soldiers and novice soldiers during audiovisual simulation of mission conditions. We performed fMRI scanning on a few volunteers during presentation of semantically relevant video-clips of real combat from Afghanistan to evaluate influence of military training on mental responses of soldiers. We showed that for professional mission-ready soldiers a week before their deployment to Afghanistan, videoclips with deadly ambush combat induce greater overall brain activation compared to novice soldiers. Missionready soldiers showed greater activation in premotor/prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and posterior temporal cortex. These results imply that fMRI technique could be used as challenging step forward in the multidimensional evaluation of military training influence on neural responses and operational capabilities of professional soldiers. This is extremely important not only for potential failure prevention and mere success of the mission, but even more for the survival and the well-being of the servicemen and servicewomen.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), Jan 2, 2014
Extreme prematurity and pregnancy conditions leading to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) af... more Extreme prematurity and pregnancy conditions leading to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affect thousands of newborns every year and increase their risk for poor higher order cognitive and social skills at school age. However, little is known about the brain structural basis of these disabilities. To compare the structural integrity of neural circuits between prematurely born controls and children born extreme preterm (EP) or with IUGR at school age, long-ranging and short-ranging connections were noninvasively mapped across cortical hemispheres by connection matrices derived from diffusion tensor tractography. Brain connectivity was modeled along fiber bundles connecting 83 brain regions by a weighted characterization of structural connectivity (SC). EP and IUGR subjects, when compared with controls, had decreased fractional anisotropy-weighted SC (FAw-SC) of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop connections while cortico-cortical association connections showed both dec...
Due to advances in neonatal intensive care over the last decades, the pattern of brain injury see... more Due to advances in neonatal intensive care over the last decades, the pattern of brain injury seen in very preterm infants has evolved in more subtle lesions that are still essential to diagnose in regard to neurodevelopmental outcome. While cranial ultrasound is still used at the bedside, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is becoming increasingly used in this population for the assessment of brain maturation and white and grey matter lesions. Therefore, MRI provides a better prognostic value for the neurodevelopmental outcome of these preterms. Furthermore, the development of new MRI techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging, resting state functional connectivity and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, may further increase the prognostic value, helping to counsel parents and allocate early intervention services.
International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience, 2014
Human brain is extraordinarily complex and yet its origin is a simple tubular structure. Its deve... more Human brain is extraordinarily complex and yet its origin is a simple tubular structure. Its development during the fetal period is characterized by a series of accurately organized events which underlie the mechanisms of dramatic structural changes during fetal development. Revealing detailed anatomy at different stages of human fetal brain development provides insight on understanding not only this highly ordered process, but also the neurobiological foundations of cognitive brain disorders such as mental retardation, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar and language impairment. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and histology are complementary tools which are capable of delineating the fetal brain structures at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. In this review, the structural development of the fetal brains has been characterized with DTI and histology. Major components of the fetal brain, including cortical plate, fetal white matter and cerebral wall layer between the ventricle and ...
ABSTRACT Professional military training makes tough demands on soldiers’ perceptual and motor ski... more ABSTRACT Professional military training makes tough demands on soldiers’ perceptual and motor skills, as well as on their physical fitness and cognitive capabilities in the course of preparation for stressful operational environments. In this pilot study we attempted to identify difference in pattern of neural responses between extensively trained, professional mission-ready soldiers and novice soldiers during audiovisual simulation of mission conditions. We performed fMRI scanning on a few volunteers during presentation of semantically relevant video-clips of real combat from Afghanistan to evaluate influence of military training on mental responses of soldiers. We showed that for professional mission-ready soldiers a week before their deployment to Afghanistan, videoclips with deadly ambush combat induce greater overall brain activation compared to novice soldiers. Missionready soldiers showed greater activation in premotor/prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and posterior temporal cortex. These results imply that fMRI technique could be used as challenging step forward in the multidimensional evaluation of military training influence on neural responses and operational capabilities of professional soldiers. This is extremely important not only for potential failure prevention and mere success of the mission, but even more for the survival and the well-being of the servicemen and servicewomen.
Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), Jan 2, 2014
Extreme prematurity and pregnancy conditions leading to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) af... more Extreme prematurity and pregnancy conditions leading to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) affect thousands of newborns every year and increase their risk for poor higher order cognitive and social skills at school age. However, little is known about the brain structural basis of these disabilities. To compare the structural integrity of neural circuits between prematurely born controls and children born extreme preterm (EP) or with IUGR at school age, long-ranging and short-ranging connections were noninvasively mapped across cortical hemispheres by connection matrices derived from diffusion tensor tractography. Brain connectivity was modeled along fiber bundles connecting 83 brain regions by a weighted characterization of structural connectivity (SC). EP and IUGR subjects, when compared with controls, had decreased fractional anisotropy-weighted SC (FAw-SC) of cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop connections while cortico-cortical association connections showed both dec...
Due to advances in neonatal intensive care over the last decades, the pattern of brain injury see... more Due to advances in neonatal intensive care over the last decades, the pattern of brain injury seen in very preterm infants has evolved in more subtle lesions that are still essential to diagnose in regard to neurodevelopmental outcome. While cranial ultrasound is still used at the bedside, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is becoming increasingly used in this population for the assessment of brain maturation and white and grey matter lesions. Therefore, MRI provides a better prognostic value for the neurodevelopmental outcome of these preterms. Furthermore, the development of new MRI techniques, such as diffusion tensor imaging, resting state functional connectivity and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, may further increase the prognostic value, helping to counsel parents and allocate early intervention services.
Uploads
Papers by Lana Vasung