Abnormal Structural Covariance Networks and Impaired Executive Function in Adolescents with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Rationale

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Objectives

Overwhelming evidence found that adolescents with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) exhibit structural brain alterations. The influence of mTBI on the adolescents' structural covariance networks (SCNs) remains unexplored.

Materials And Methods

In this study, data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study were adopted, comprising 450 adolescents with mTBI and 450 matched controls for clinical behavior analysis. After structural magnetic resonance imaging quality control, 415 adolescents with mTBI and 404 matched controls were finally included in the SCNs analysis. The SCNs were established using cortical thickness (CT) and cortical surface area (CSA), with group differences assessed via nonparametric permutation tests.

Results

The results demonstrated that adolescents with mTBI suffered from impaired cognitive function, including worse working memory, processing speed, and sleep quality. Furthermore, adolescents with mTBI demonstrated both reduced CSA and CT in the executive control network (ECN), including the superior parietal lobule, anterior cingulate cortex, superior frontal gyrus, and insula. In addition, network nodal metrics in these regions also showed abnormalities.

Conclusion

These findings might suggest that impaired executive function is associated with aberrant SCNs of hubs in ECN in adolescents with mTBI.