Event Abstract Back to Event Cognition early after stroke correlates better with regional brain volume than white matter hyperintensity volume Toby Cumming1*, Qi Li1, Emilio Werden1, Audrey Raffelt1, Renee Lichter1, Heath Pardoe2 and Amy Brodtmann1 1 Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Australia 2 New York University, United States Background Results from longitudinal community studies indicate that white matter lesions or hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with cognitive impairment. However, the associations between cognition, WMH volume and regional brain volumes after stroke have not been studied in detail. Methods The Cognition And Neocortical Volume After Stroke (CANVAS) project is an ongoing, prospective longitudinal study. Acute ischemic stroke patients were tested within 30 days of symptom onset. Isotropic 1 mm MPRAGE images were acquired on a Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner. Images were processed using Freesurfer V5.1, generating automated measures for total brain volume, cortical thickness and amygdala volume. Hippocampal and WMH volumes were calculated via manual tracing. Patients completed tests of memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised: immediate and delayed recall) and attention (CogState simple and choice reaction time tasks). Results Data from the first 50 CANVAS patients (mean age 68.8±11.6 years, education 13.3±4.0 years, NIHSS 3.8±3.1, days to testing 22.3) are presented. Performance on the Hopkins was below expected norms: immediate recall z-score -0.88±1.1, delayed recall z-score -1.06±1.7. Poorer immediate recall was significantly correlated with reduced cortical thickness, hippocampal and amygdala volume, whereas delayed recall was not significantly correlated with any structural brain measure. Simple and choice reaction times were most strongly correlated with overall cortical thickness (r = -0.40 and -0.44, respectively). Surprisingly, WMH volume was not significantly correlated with any of the cognitive measures. Conclusions Memory and attention performance is more closely related to structural brain volumes (total grey matter, hippocampi, amygdalae) than to WMHs in the first month following stroke. Tracking of atrophy and cortical thinning across time after stroke may provide important insights into long-term cognitive decline. Keywords: Attention, Memory, Stroke, cognitive impairment, white matter hyperintensities, brain volume Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Cognition and Executive Processes Citation: Cumming T, Li Q, Werden E, Raffelt A, Lichter R, Pardoe H and Brodtmann A (2015). Cognition early after stroke correlates better with regional brain volume than white matter hyperintensity volume. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00157 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: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Dr. Toby Cumming, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia, toby.cumming@florey.edu.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 Toby Cumming Qi Li Emilio Werden Audrey Raffelt Renee Lichter Heath Pardoe Amy Brodtmann Google Toby Cumming Qi Li Emilio Werden Audrey Raffelt Renee Lichter Heath Pardoe Amy Brodtmann Google Scholar Toby Cumming Qi Li Emilio Werden Audrey Raffelt Renee Lichter Heath Pardoe Amy Brodtmann PubMed Toby Cumming Qi Li Emilio Werden Audrey Raffelt Renee Lichter Heath Pardoe Amy Brodtmann 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.