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Altered neural activation during prepotent response inhibition in breast cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy: an fMRI study

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Abstract

While impairments in executive functions have been reported in breast cancer survivors (BCS) who have undergone adjuvant chemotherapy, only a limited number of functional neuroimaging studies have associated alterations in cerebral activity with executive functions deficits in BCS. Using fMRI, the current study assessed the neural basis underlying a specific facet of executive function, namely prepotent response inhibition. 12 BCS who self-reported cognitive problems up to 3 years following cancer treatment and 12 female healthy comparisons (HC) performed the Stroop task. We compared their neural activation between the incongruent and neutral experimental conditions. Relative to the HC group, BCS showed lower blood-oxygen level dependent signal in several frontal regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex, a region critical for response inhibition. Our data indicates reduced neural activation in BCS during a prepotent response inhibition task, providing support for the prevailing notion of neural alterations observed in BCS treated with chemotherapy.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation—British Columbia/Yukon. The funding source had no involvement in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the writing of the manuscript. JWYK was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. LAB receives salary support from the Canada Research Chairs. Thank you to Tiffany Moore, Sarah Neil, Amy Kirkham, and Kortni Peill for assistance with data collection. We also thank all our participants for their time and participation in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4

    Julia W. Y. Kam & Todd C. Handy

  2. Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, 212, 2177 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z3

    Lara A. Boyd, Chun L. Hsu, Teresa Liu-Ambrose & Kristin L. Campbell

  3. Center for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, 2215 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z3

    Chun L. Hsu & Teresa Liu-Ambrose

  4. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, 2775 Laurel Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Z 1M9

    Howard J. Lim & Sherri Hayden

  5. Medical Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Agency, 600 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Z 4E6

    Howard J. Lim

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  1. Julia W. Y. Kam
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Kam, J.W.Y., Boyd, L.A., Hsu, C.L. et al. Altered neural activation during prepotent response inhibition in breast cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy: an fMRI study. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 840–848 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9464-7

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