Microstructural asymmetry across cortical layers in the human brain
Poster No:
2137
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Bin Wan1, Amin Saberi1, Casey Paquola2, Lina Schaare1, Meike Hettwer3, Jessica Royer4, Alexandra John1, Şeyma Bayrak1, Richard Bethlehem5, Simon Eickhoff6, Boris Bernhardt7, Sofie Valk1
Institutions:
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 2INM-7, Jülich, Jülich, 3Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, North Rhine-Westphalia, 4Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Montreal, QC, 5Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 6Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, North Rhine–Westphalia Land, 7Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Montreal, Quebec
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Richard Bethlehem
Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Simon Eickhoff
Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, North Rhine–Westphalia Land
Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf, North Rhine–Westphalia Land
Introduction:
Left-right asymmetry is an important feature of human brain structure and function, supporting language and related to mental health (Kong et al., 2022). Previous studies have investigated asymmetry of gross morphological features such as cortical thickness, surface area, and gray matter volume. However, little is known about the asymmetry of the cortical microstructure at the meso- and micro-scale. Here, we study the asymmetry of cortical microstructure leveraging post-mortem histological maps and in vivo MRI, and explore their association with language and mental health.
Methods:
whole brain cell-body staining sample with ultra-high resolution (20 um). We used surface-based data in BigBrain native space and 6-layer estimates from a previous study (Wagstyl et al., 2020), then constructed 10 equivolumetric surfaces within each layer (Fig. 1A and 1B). To probe the regional asymmetry index (AI), we employed a homologue multimodal parcellation (Glasser et al., 2016). We regressed out the mean intensity for RH and LH and obtained normalized intensity values. Additionally, we used in vivo T1w/T2w imaging for in vivo replication (Glasser et al., 2022), Human Connectome Project (HCP, n = 1101, resolution = 0.8 mm). We reconstructed 12 equivolumetric surfaces between pial and white matter and z-scored the intensity values for LH and RH (Fig. 1D). We calculated the microstructural intensity AI for each surface and/or layer by subtracting right from left hemispheres. To understand how the microstructural differentiation differs between LH and RH, we computed the microstructural profile covariance (i.e., ipsilateral patterns: from LH to LH and from RH to RH; contralateral patterns: from LH to RH and from RH to LH) and used diffusion map embedding to capture the gradients for LH and RH separately. Then we aligned RH to LH and calculated the AI for each pattern (Fig. 2A and 2B). We summarized our findings into 12 functional networks including primary visual (Vis1), secondary visual (Vis2), somatomotor (SMN), cingulo-opercular (CON), dorsal attention (DAN), language (Lan.), frontoparietal (FPN), auditory network (Aud.), default mode (DMN), posterior multimodal (PMN), ventral multimodal (VMN), and orbito-affective (OAN).
Results:
We found an overall left-right asymmetry pattern from anterior to posterior regions (Fig. 1C and 1E). Studying how asymmetry of each region varied across layers, we observed highest variation in VMN and SMN, and lowest in Vis1 and Vis2 (Fig. 1F and 1G). Next, we investigated inter-regional asymmetry in microstructural organization. In Bigbrain, we found lan. and FPN showed a stronger laminar differentiation in LH than RH, and PMN showed a stronger laminar differentiation in RH than LH for ipsilateral pattern (Fig. 2C). In HCP, FPN and OAN showed a stronger laminar differentiation in LH than RH, and PMN showed a stronger laminar differentiation in RH than LH for ipsilateral pattern. Contralateral pattern was similar to the ipsilateral pattern. To test how the BigBrain has a spatial similarity to HCP, we correlated the asymmetry spatial pattern between individual HCP and BigBrain (Fig. 2C). It suggested no correlation with mean r = 0.03 and 0.01 for ipsilateral and contralateral patterns respectively.
Conclusions:
We illustrate cortex-wide asymmetry in microstructure along layers and at the system level for both post mortem cytoarchitecture and in vivo imaging histology, especially for language- and attention-related regions.
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Anatomy and Functional Systems 2
Cortical Cyto- and Myeloarchitecture 1
Keywords:
Cortical Layers
Hemispheric Specialization
Myelin
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
·Fig 1. Layer-specific asymmetry in BigBrain and HCP.
·Fig 2. Asymmetry of microstructural profile covariance gradients..
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