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Mapping changes of in vivo connectivity patterns in the human mediodorsal thalamus: correlations with higher cognitive and executive functions

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Abstract

The mediodorsal thalamic nucleus is recognized as an association hub mediating interconnections with mainly the prefrontal cortex. Tracer studies in primates and in vivo diffusion tensor tractography findings in both humans and monkeys confirm its role in relaying networks that connect to the dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal, frontal medial and cingulate cortex. Our study was designed to use in vivo probabilistic tractography to describe the pathways emerging from or projecting to the mediodorsal nucleus; moreover, to use such information to automatically define subdivisions based on the divergence of remote structural connections. Diffusion tensor MR imaging data of 156 subjects were utilized to perform connectivity-based segmentation of the mediodorsal nucleus by employing a k-means clustering algorithm. Two domains were revealed (medial and lateral) that are separated from each other by a sagittally oriented plane. For each subject, general assessment of cognitive performance by means of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence and measures of Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) test was utilized. Inter-subject variability in terms of connectivity-based cluster sizes was discovered and the relative sizes of the lateral mediodorsal domain correlated with the individuals’ performance in the D-KEFS Sorting test (r = 0.232, p = 0.004). Our results show that the connectivity-based parcellation technique applied to the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus delivers a single subject level descriptor of connectional topography; furthermore, we revealed a possible weak interaction between executive performance and the size of the thalamic area from which pathways converge to the lateral prefrontal cortex.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable comments of Anne Morel (Center for Clinical Research, University Hospital Zürich) and the technical support of Saad Jbabdi (Centre for Functional Magnetic Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford) and Gabor Szekely (Computer Vision Laboratory, ETH Zürich). Subject data were kindly provided by the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric research. A.J. is supported by the Sciex NMS-CH Fellowship.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Biomedical Laboratory and Imaging Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Center, 98. Nagyerdei krt., Debrecen, 4032, Hungary

    András Jakab & Ervin L. Berényi

  2. Computer Vision Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

    András Jakab & Rémi Blanc

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  1. András Jakab
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Correspondence to András Jakab.

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Suppl. Fig. 1

Three-dimensional representation of the connectivity-based clusters of the mediodorsal nucleus, 5th percentile, median and 95th percentile volumes of the MDlat (red objects) and MDmed (blue objects). The atlas-based MDmc and MDpc nuclei borders have been transformed to the standard neuroimaging space (green objects). The Dice overlap measure of the MDlat and MDpc volumes were 0.74 ± 0.04 and 0.45 ± 0.11 for the MDmc – MDmed. (JPEG 187 kb)

Suppl. Fig. 2

Three-dimensional representation of the fiber trajectories emerging from the MDlat and MDmed clusters (depicted in red and blue overlay, respectively). Volume rendering technique was used to demonstrate the averaged fiber anatomy as an overlay on the MNI152 T1-weighted brain template. Top row: lateral-oblique view, bottom row: medial (mid-sagittal) view of the brain template and the resulting networks. (JPEG 265 kb)

Suppl. Fig. 3

Connectivity-based clustering of the MD nucleus as a depiction of individual connectional anatomy. We demonstrate the procedure in two individual cases with different D-KEFS Sorting Test scores. On the left side, a case with high performance is exemplified while the right panels show a low performer. Top row: reordered cross-correlation matrix of the connections emerging from the MD and connectivity-based clusters depicted on the subject’s 3DT1 MRI image. Middle and bottom rows: 3D representations of individual cortical anatomy (volume rendering) and fiber tracts originating from the MDlat (red) and MDmed (blue) subdivisions. (JPEG 1605 kb)

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Jakab, A., Blanc, R. & Berényi, E.L. Mapping changes of in vivo connectivity patterns in the human mediodorsal thalamus: correlations with higher cognitive and executive functions. Brain Imaging and Behavior 6, 472–483 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-012-9172-5

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