最佳化擴散與功能性磁振影像於人類生命週期之人腦神經與功能連結研究

Mapping brain connections change across the human lifespan with optimum diffusion and functional MRI

林慶波(C.-P. Lin)

《福祉科技與服務管理學刊》 4卷1期 (2016/03) Pp. 11-20

https://doi.org/10.6283/JOCSG.2016.4.1.11

摘要

隨著認知功能和神經心理研究不斷發展，大腦的發育、成熟和衰老在其中扮演的角色逐漸受到重視，特別是其如何影響記憶、專注力或是更複雜的認知功能。近年來研究發現大腦認知功能不僅僅是來自於某特定拓譜結構上改變的影響，而是同時被複雜的大腦連結所調控。由於大腦功能由神經結構所定義，大腦結構上的神經突觸及神經元的連結分布與大腦功能的關聯亦見重要。為了解這些大腦功能網路在健康成人或疾病患者中如何調變這些複雜認知功能及行為表現，針對不同年齡層的大腦連結發展過程進行研究是重要且必須的。近年在結構性及功能性大腦連接的技術研究開啟了新的大規模腦網路概念。大腦功能以及神經心理學上的行為表現與大腦拓譜網路的關聯性在人類生命週期中發展上的改變已被提出。藉由新穎的非侵襲式磁振造影技術，人類生命週期的大腦網路的研究能夠幫助了解大腦結構性及功能性網路組織結構與行為的互動。根據我們過去的研究成果以及可預見的未來趨勢，行為改變及大腦連結變化與年齡的相關性研究將會越趨重要。本計劃的目標是要先建立人類大腦可信的神經網路重建技術，並且將結構性與功能性網路進行屬性評估及網路整合，有助於了解生命週期大腦功能以及網路變化。在計畫的後期，為了解華人腦網路連結在生命週期中認知行為與大腦神經及功能網路結構的變化，本研究將進行成人、中老年至老年群族的認知行為與大腦神經連結分析。本研究將進行以下階段完成上述目標：(i)最佳化大腦連結，發展具有高效及可信賴的技術重建大腦結構網絡連結；(ii)建立大腦結構性與功能性網路並進行整合；(iii, iv)發展生命週期針對成人至老年人群族的臨床行為與認知表徵與大腦連結網路做連結，希望能針對不同生命週期來進一步瞭解神經網絡的結構及功能，並應用相關技術與知識於神經科學、精神科學及病理研究。透過大腦連結的結構與功能特性，顯示大腦結構與功能連結的發展變化與認知能力的相關性，並預測大腦在生命週期的退化曲線，並於計畫結束後，與科技部合作提供兩岸之影像資料庫作為華人相關發育與老化與認知神經科學及臨床研究基礎。

關鍵字

老化 ； 生命週期 ； 大腦網路 ； 認知退化 ； 擴散磁振造影 ； 功能性磁振造影

並列摘要

Brain development, maturation and senescence are a complex process linked with widespread change that underlies sophisticated cognitive functions and neuropsychological behaviors including memory, attention, and cognitive control. Growing evidence shows that human brain function is not only modulated by brain topological changes but also operates coherently by large-scale brain organization for specific complex cognitive functions. Anatomical linkage of synapses and associated neurons supplies the basic architecture of brain functions that are of interest to neuroscientists since connectivity patterns define functional networks. To understand the extensive cognitive and behavioral advances in both healthy and disease states, study of brain connectivity from childhood to aging is crucial and necessary. Recent advances in the study of structural and functional brain connectivity inspire new conceptualizations of large-scale brain networks. The dynamic and neuropsychological behaviors have been demonstrated to link the topology of the brain networks, which changes over the lifespan etiology following a specific anatomical sequence. With the aid of novel in-vivo MRI techniques, a thorough knowledge of brain network across the lifespan in living humans sheds light on an integrated understanding of the interplay of structural and functional brain organization and behavior. Based on our previous work and the foreseeable importance of age-related behavior and brain connection associations, the goal of this project is to develop a robust reconstruction algorithm for structural connectivity to build reliable brain connectivity models in living human brains, or human connectomics (neuroconnectomics). Sequentially, the properties of structural and functional networks will be examined and further integrated to improve the models of functional integration. It will allow us to study brain connections and functional integration across the lifespan in a large-scale brain network. In the last two years, to elucidate a complete view of the functional dynamics and the underlying anatomical connections across the lifespan, behavior-linked functional dynamics and the underlying anatomical connections in the living human brain across childhood-adulthood (3rd year) and adulthood to ageing (4th year) will be studied. In order to achieve this goal, we anticipate to (i) optimize imaging methods in reconstructed brain networks, especially for most of the previous DTI dataset that was already acquired in various global brain enters, and to (ii) construct the topological patterns of large-scale brain networks across the lifespan for the (iii, iv) behavior-linked developing process of brain organization during early adulthood and in older adults, which may be applied to predict the maturing of particular cognitive functions and to predict years until neurodegenerative symptom onset in high-risk subjects. With these efforts, we can reveal the development of brain structural and functional connectivity underlying alterations in cognitive abilities and predict individual brain maturity through the lifespan. At the end of this project, the database will be released for international academic research, under the agreement from Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology. This project should prove helpful to further aging/development studies in brain functions and disorders, and inform evidence-based robust clinical interventions.

並列關鍵字

aging ； lifespan ； brain network ； cognitive decline ； diffusion MRI ； functional MRI