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Comprehensive shape analysis of the cortex in Huntington's disease
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Comprehensive shape analysis of the cortex in Huntington's disease

Zachary A Stoebner, Kilian Hett, Ilwoo Lyu, Hans Johnson, Jane S Paulsen, Jeffrey D Long and Ipek Oguz
Human brain mapping, Vol.44(4), pp.1417-1431
03/2023
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26125
PMCID: PMC9921229
PMID: 36409662
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26125View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The striatum has traditionally been the focus of Huntington's disease research due to the primary insult to this region and its central role in motor symptoms. Beyond the striatum, evidence of cortical alterations caused by Huntington's disease has surfaced. However, findings are not coherent between studies which have used cortical thickness for Huntington's disease since it is the well-established cortical metric of interest in other diseases. In this study, we propose a more comprehensive approach to cortical morphology in Huntington's disease using cortical thickness, sulcal depth, and local gyrification index. Our results show consistency with prior findings in cortical thickness, including its limitations. Our comparison between cortical thickness and local gyrification index underscores the complementary nature of these two measures—cortical thickness detects changes in the sensorimotor and posterior areas while local gyrification index identifies insular differences. Since local gyrification index and cortical thickness measures detect changes in different regions, the two used in tandem could provide a clinically relevant measure of disease progression. Our findings suggest that differences in insular regions may correspond to earlier neurodegeneration and may provide a complementary cortical measure for detection of subtle early cortical changes due to Huntington's disease.

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