Mapping Dorsal and Ventral Caudate in Older Adults: Method and Validation.

Jared J Tanner,Haiqing Huang,Nadine A Schwab,Catherine C Price,Mingzhou Ding,Peter T Nguyen

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2017.00091

Jared J Tanner, Haiqing Huang + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00091

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Abstract

The caudate nucleus plays important roles in cognition and affect. Depending on associated connectivity and function, the caudate can be further divided into dorsal and ventral aspects. Dorsal caudate, highly connected to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), is implicated in executive function and working memory; ventral caudate, more interconnected with the limbic system, is implicated in affective functions such as pain processing. Clinically, certain brain disorders are known to differentially impact dorsal and ventral caudate. Thus, precise parcellation of caudate has both basic and clinical neuroscience significance. In young adults, past work has combined resting-state fMRI functional connectivity with clustering algorithms to define dorsal and ventral caudate. Whether the same approach is effective in older adults and how to validate the parcellation results have not been considered. We addressed these problems by obtaining resting-state fMRI data from 56 older non-demented adults (age: 69.07 ± 5.92 years and MOCA: 25.71 ± 2.46) along with a battery of cognitive and clinical assessments. Connectivity from each voxel of caudate to the rest of the brain was computed using cross correlation. Applying the K-means clustering algorithm to the connectivity patterns with K = 2 yielded two substructures within caudate, which agree well with previously reported dorsal and ventral divisions of caudate. Furthermore, dorsal-caudate-seeded functional connectivity was shown to be more strongly associated with working memory and fluid reasoning composite scores, whereas ventral-caudate-seeded functional connectivity more strongly associated with pain and fatigue severity. These results demonstrate that dorsal and ventral caudate can be reliably identified by combining resting-state fMRI and clustering algorithms in older adults.

Highlights

The caudate is a gray matter subcortical nucleus that can be divided into dorsal and ventral aspects based on their connectivity and functions (Nakano et al, 2000; Robinson et al, 2012)
The dorsal caudate appears to be more vulnerable to diseases that cause motor or cognitive impairments (e.g., Parkinson’s disease), while the ventral caudate appears more disrupted in affective disorders
Combining resting-state fMRI connectivity and clustering analysis, we showed that it is possible to parcellate the caudate into two functional subdivisions: dorsal and ventral caudate, in older adults

Summary

Introduction

The caudate is a gray matter subcortical nucleus that can be divided into dorsal and ventral aspects based on their connectivity and functions (Nakano et al, 2000; Robinson et al, 2012). The dorsal caudate, a component of the dorsal striatum, plays important roles in motor and cognitive functions (Choi et al, 2012; Robinson et al, 2012). Dorsal and ventral caudate show different vulnerability to diseases. The dorsal caudate appears to be more vulnerable to diseases that cause motor or cognitive impairments (e.g., Parkinson’s disease), while the ventral caudate appears more disrupted in affective disorders. In Huntington’s disease, there is significant caudate atrophy, with the ventral caudate showing more atrophy in the group of more severely affected patients (Kassubek et al, 2004)

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Conclusion