Event Abstract Back to Event Morphology and Connectivity of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Unilateral Cerebral Palsy Simon M. Scheck1, 2, Kerstin Pannek1, 2, Roslyn N. Boyd1 and Stephen E. Rose3* 1 The University of Queensland, Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, Australia 2 The University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Australia 3 CSIRO, Australian e-Health Research Centre, Australia Diffusion imaging studies have given insight into the pathophysiology of motor impairment in cerebral palsy (CP), however little is understood about the neuropathology of social, cognitive and psychiatric aspects. As the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a structure with functional and anatomical links to these functions, we investigated the morphology and connectivity of this structure in unilateral CP. Subjects included 24 children with unilateral CP (12 left, 12 right hemiplegia; 9-16 years) and 13 typically developing controls. Tractography was performed using a HARDI approach. Volumetric analysis was performed using Freesurfer atlas based parcellations. Between group analyses of white matter (WM) tracts with greatest connectivity to ACC were performed using amplitude of fibre orientation distribution (FOD) parallel to the streamline, and tensor based fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) indices. The FOD peak amplitude is a robust measure of tract integrity within complex WM architecture. There were no significant volumetric changes between groups. Major WM tracts connecting ACC to medial orbitofrontal cortex, precuneus and thalamus were analysed. While significant between group differences in FA and MD were apparent in all tracts, there were no significant differences in FOD amplitude for any tract. These results show no volumetric or connectivity changes to the ACC in unilateral CP. The results highlight limitations of the diffusion tensor model, showing that false positive results are common where crossing fibres are abundant, but can be eliminated using higher order diffusion models. Further investigation into the pathophysiology of social and cognitive impairment in CP is warranted. Keywords: diffusion MRI, Cerebral Palsy, Hemiplegia, Executive Function, anterior cingulate cortex, tractography, HARDI, FreeSurfer, volumetric MRI Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Executive Processes Citation: Scheck SM, Pannek K, Boyd RN and Rose SE (2012). Morphology and Connectivity of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Unilateral Cerebral Palsy. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00181 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Oct 2012; Published Online: 17 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Stephen E Rose, CSIRO, Australian e-Health Research Centre, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Stephen.Rose@csiro.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Simon M Scheck Kerstin Pannek Roslyn N Boyd Stephen E Rose Google Simon M Scheck Kerstin Pannek Roslyn N Boyd Stephen E Rose Google Scholar Simon M Scheck Kerstin Pannek Roslyn N Boyd Stephen E Rose PubMed Simon M Scheck Kerstin Pannek Roslyn N Boyd Stephen E Rose Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.