LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS OF AGING AND NEURODEGENERATION ON STRUCTURE-FUNCTION AND BRAIN-BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIPS…

Assistance award details

Assistance award identifier

ASST_NON_K00AG079810_075

FAIN

K00AG079810

Recipient

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Awarding agency

Department of Health and Human Services

Funding agency

Department of Health and Human Services

Assistance listing (CFDA)

93.866

Total obligated

$161,248

Period

Dec 1, 2022 – Feb 28, 2029

Fiscal year

2025

Place of performance state

TN

Source file

FY2025_All_Assistance_Full_20261006.zip

Description

LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS OF AGING AND NEURODEGENERATION ON STRUCTURE-FUNCTION AND BRAIN-BEHAVIOR RELATIONSHIPS - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI) IS A POWERFUL NON-INVASIVE TOOL FOR IMAGING BRAIN ACTIVITY THAT ALLOWS FOR INVESTIGATING THE DYNAMICALLY CHANGING ACTIVITY PATTERNS AND STRUCTURE THAT GIVE RISE TO HUMAN BRAIN FUNCTION AND DYSFUNCTION. FUNCTIONAL MRI (FMRI) SIGNAL VARIATIONS LINKED WITH VIGILANCE STATES, AND THE SUBCORTICAL-CORTICAL NETWORKS THAT UNDERLIE THESE FLUCTUATIONS IN VIGILANCE, ARE BEING INCREASINGLY RECOGNIZED AS FMRI SIGNALS OF INTEREST BOTH FOR NEUROSCIENCE AND IN STUDYING DISEASE. HOWEVER, VIGILANCE HAS BEEN LARGELY IGNORED IN ROUTINE FMRI STUDIES, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SUBJECTS TEND TO FALL ASLEEP IN THE SCANNER AND CERTAIN PATIENT POPULATIONS MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE TO FATIGUE OR DAYTIME SLEEPINESS. MORE PRECISELY CHARACTERIZING THE ROLE OF VIGILANCE IN DISEASE, AND ITS EFFECTS IN FMRI DATA, COULD BE KEY FOR DEVELOPING IMAGING BIOMARKERS AS WELL AS IMPROVING TREATMENT. MY DOCTORAL WORK THUS FAR, (AIM 1.1) DEVELOPED A METHOD FOR EXTRACTING A VIGILANCE METRIC, BASED ON FMRI DATA ALONE, USING A VIGILANCE-RELATED ACTIVITY PATTERN BUILT FROM CORRELATIONS BETWEEN SIMULTANEOUS FMRI-EEG IN HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS. FOR MY F99 PHASE, I WILL (AIM 1.2) INVESTIGATE WHETHER A STATE-OF-THE-ART IMAGE ACQUISITION/PROCESSING METHOD, MULTI-ECHO INDEPENDENT COMPONENT ANALYSIS (ME-ICA), IMPROVES THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN FMRI SIGNAL AND EEG SIGNAL, AND WHETHER USING THE ME-ICA APPROACH IMPROVES SENSITIVITY IN DETECTING SUBCORTICAL AROUSAL NETWORKS. FINALLY, I WILL (IN AIM 1.3) ATTEMPT TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRED (MCI) PATIENTS AND HEALTHY AGING CONTROLS BY LEVERAGING FMRI-BASED VIGILANCE AS A BIOMARKER. BY COMPARING VIGILANCE FLUCTUATIONS AND FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY DIFFERENCES IN VIGILANCE NETWORK REGIONS OF INTEREST, WE SEEK TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF VIGILANCE IN EARLY-STAGE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL HE