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A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei

BACKGROUND: Understanding the structural connectivity of key brainstem nuclei with limbic cortical regions is essential to the development of therapeutic neuromodulation for depression, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety and movement disorders. Several brainstem nuclei have been identified as the prim...

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Autores principales: Levinson, Simon, Miller, Michelle, Iftekhar, Ahmed, Justo, Monica, Arriola, Daniel, Wei, Wenxin, Hazany, Saman, Avecillas-Chasin, Josue M., Kuhn, Taylor P., Horn, Andreas, Bari, Ausaf A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10406319/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37555163
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnimg.2022.1009399
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author Levinson, Simon
Miller, Michelle
Iftekhar, Ahmed
Justo, Monica
Arriola, Daniel
Wei, Wenxin
Hazany, Saman
Avecillas-Chasin, Josue M.
Kuhn, Taylor P.
Horn, Andreas
Bari, Ausaf A.
author_facet Levinson, Simon
Miller, Michelle
Iftekhar, Ahmed
Justo, Monica
Arriola, Daniel
Wei, Wenxin
Hazany, Saman
Avecillas-Chasin, Josue M.
Kuhn, Taylor P.
Horn, Andreas
Bari, Ausaf A.
author_sort Levinson, Simon
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Understanding the structural connectivity of key brainstem nuclei with limbic cortical regions is essential to the development of therapeutic neuromodulation for depression, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety and movement disorders. Several brainstem nuclei have been identified as the primary central nervous system (CNS) source of important monoaminergic ascending fibers including the noradrenergic locus coeruleus, serotonergic dorsal raphe nucleus, and dopaminergic ventral tegmental area. However, due to practical challenges to their study, there is limited data regarding their in vivo anatomic connectivity in humans. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the structural connectivity of the following brainstem nuclei with limbic cortical areas: locus coeruleus, ventral tegmental area, periaqueductal grey, dorsal raphe nucleus, and nucleus tractus solitarius. Additionally, to develop a group average atlas of these limbic brainstem structures to facilitate future analyses. METHODS: Each nucleus was manually masked from 197 Human Connectome Project (HCP) structural MRI images using FSL software. Probabilistic tractography was performed using FSL's FMRIB Diffusion Toolbox. Connectivity with limbic cortical regions was calculated and compared between brainstem nuclei. Results were aggregated to produce a freely available MNI structural atlas of limbic brainstem structures. RESULTS: A general trend was observed for a high probability of connectivity to the amygdala, hippocampus and DLPFC with relatively lower connectivity to the orbitofrontal cortex, NAc, hippocampus and insula. The locus coeruleus and nucleus tractus solitarius demonstrated significantly greater connectivity to the DLPFC than amygdala while the periaqueductal grey, dorsal raphe nucleus, and ventral tegmental area did not demonstrate a significant difference between these two structures. CONCLUSION: Monoaminergic and other modulatory nuclei in the brainstem project widely to cortical limbic regions. We describe the structural connectivity across the several key brainstem nuclei theorized to influence emotion, reward, and cognitive functions. An increased understanding of the anatomic basis of the brainstem's role in emotion and other reward-related processing will support targeted neuromodulatary therapies aimed at alleviating the symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders.
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spelling pubmed-104063192023-08-08 A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei Levinson, Simon Miller, Michelle Iftekhar, Ahmed Justo, Monica Arriola, Daniel Wei, Wenxin Hazany, Saman Avecillas-Chasin, Josue M. Kuhn, Taylor P. Horn, Andreas Bari, Ausaf A. Front Neuroimaging Neuroimaging BACKGROUND: Understanding the structural connectivity of key brainstem nuclei with limbic cortical regions is essential to the development of therapeutic neuromodulation for depression, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety and movement disorders. Several brainstem nuclei have been identified as the primary central nervous system (CNS) source of important monoaminergic ascending fibers including the noradrenergic locus coeruleus, serotonergic dorsal raphe nucleus, and dopaminergic ventral tegmental area. However, due to practical challenges to their study, there is limited data regarding their in vivo anatomic connectivity in humans. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the structural connectivity of the following brainstem nuclei with limbic cortical areas: locus coeruleus, ventral tegmental area, periaqueductal grey, dorsal raphe nucleus, and nucleus tractus solitarius. Additionally, to develop a group average atlas of these limbic brainstem structures to facilitate future analyses. METHODS: Each nucleus was manually masked from 197 Human Connectome Project (HCP) structural MRI images using FSL software. Probabilistic tractography was performed using FSL's FMRIB Diffusion Toolbox. Connectivity with limbic cortical regions was calculated and compared between brainstem nuclei. Results were aggregated to produce a freely available MNI structural atlas of limbic brainstem structures. RESULTS: A general trend was observed for a high probability of connectivity to the amygdala, hippocampus and DLPFC with relatively lower connectivity to the orbitofrontal cortex, NAc, hippocampus and insula. The locus coeruleus and nucleus tractus solitarius demonstrated significantly greater connectivity to the DLPFC than amygdala while the periaqueductal grey, dorsal raphe nucleus, and ventral tegmental area did not demonstrate a significant difference between these two structures. CONCLUSION: Monoaminergic and other modulatory nuclei in the brainstem project widely to cortical limbic regions. We describe the structural connectivity across the several key brainstem nuclei theorized to influence emotion, reward, and cognitive functions. An increased understanding of the anatomic basis of the brainstem's role in emotion and other reward-related processing will support targeted neuromodulatary therapies aimed at alleviating the symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-01-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10406319/ /pubmed/37555163 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnimg.2022.1009399 Text en Copyright © 2023 Levinson, Miller, Iftekhar, Justo, Arriola, Wei, Hazany, Avecillas-Chasin, Kuhn, Horn and Bari. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroimaging
Levinson, Simon
Miller, Michelle
Iftekhar, Ahmed
Justo, Monica
Arriola, Daniel
Wei, Wenxin
Hazany, Saman
Avecillas-Chasin, Josue M.
Kuhn, Taylor P.
Horn, Andreas
Bari, Ausaf A.
A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title_full A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title_fullStr A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title_full_unstemmed A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title_short A structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
title_sort structural connectivity atlas of limbic brainstem nuclei
topic Neuroimaging
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10406319/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37555163
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnimg.2022.1009399
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