Presentation
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Exploring the role of the (pre)Supplementary Motor Area white matter system in cognitive control
Poster C110 in Poster Session C, Wednesday, October 25, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Joanna Sierpowska1,2,3*, Daniela Lizarazo1,4*, Estela Càmara2,5, Ruth de Diego-Balaguer1,2,3,5,6; 1Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit [Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute – IDIBELL], 08097 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, 3Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 4Sapienza University or Rome, Italy, 5European Huntington’s Disease Network, 6ICREA (Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies), Barcelona, Spain, 7*both authors contributed equally to this work
Language is a prime example of how cognitive control operates in everyday tasks as it requires the integration of multiple cognitive and linguistic processes, including attention, memory, semantic retrieval, and response selection. Brain regions involved in cognitive control, include (among others) the pre-supplementary and supplementary motor area ((pre)SMA), caudate, inferior and middle frontal gyri (IFG, MFG). The (pre)SMA is connected with the frontal cortex and caudate through white matter forming the frontal aslant tract (FAT) projecting towards IFG and MFG, and fronto-striatal tract (FST) projecting towards caudate. Its involvement in language production and/or cognitive control remains unclear. Notably, Huntington's disease (HD) caused by genetic factors leads to brain cortex and striatum degeneration resulting in difficulties with cognition and language, making HD an ideal candidate for exploring structure-to-function relationships of the (pre)SMA system. This study aims to explore the role of (pre)SMA connectivity in cognitive control. We investigated the microstructural properties of the (pre)SMA system in 32 controls and 41 HD individuals using probabilistic tractography from diffusion-weighted images. FAT (both IFG and MFG branches) and FST were defined using the regions of interest (ROIs), approach in both hemispheres. Measures of volume, fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) values were extracted from the tractography results to be compared between the two study groups and then correlated with cognitive scores. The cognitive tests included: Trail Making Test (TMT B-A), Digit Forward and Backward from the Wechsler Memory Scale, and the Verbal Fluency Test. While comparing the MD values, group differences in the FAT and FST microstructure were observed in all the tracts except for the left FAT (IFG projection). No group differences were observed while comparing FA values. In HD participants scores of the TMT B-A test indicated a positive correlation with the MD values of the FAT (IFG projection; ρ(33)=.47, p=.004 and ρ(33)=.56, p=.0003 FDR corr.; left and right respectively), with the right FST (ρ(33)=.51, p=.0001 FDR corr.), and with the portion of the FAT that terminates on the MFG in the right hemisphere (ρ(33)=.42, p=.02 FDR corr.). In conclusion - our findings suggest the involvement of the right and left FAT (IFG projection) as well as right FST and FAT (MFG projections) white matter tracts in a task involving cognitive control, specifically cognitive flexibility, set-shifting, and attentional processing. Future studies in this research line will aim at disentangling the relationships between (pre)SMA system and cognitive control which is involved specifically in language tasks in both healthy subjects and in people with HD.
Topic Areas: Control, Selection, and Executive Processes, Disorders: Acquired