Genetic load determines atrophy in hand cortico-striatal pathways in presymptomatic Huntington's disease.

ABSTRACT: Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder that causes progressive breakdown of striatal neurons. Standard white matter integrity measures like fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity derived from diffusion tensor imaging were analyzed in prodromal-HD subjects; however, they studied either a whole brain or specific subcortical white matter structures with connections to cortical motor areas. In this work, we propose a novel analysis of a longitudinal cohort of 243 prodromal-HD individuals and 88 healthy controls who underwent two or more diffusion MRI scans as part of the PREDICT-HD study. We separately trace specific white matter fiber tracts connecting the striatum (caudate and putamen) with four cortical regions corresponding to the hand, face, trunk, and le

SUBMITTER: Hong Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6160325 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature