Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 8 pp 10973—10988

Association between white matter hyperintensity load and grey matter atrophy in mild cognitive impairment is not unidirectional

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Figure 1. Load-dependent differential relationships between grey matter and white matter hyperintensity load in mild cognitive impairment. (A) The brain slice shows the positive association between voxel-wise GMV and WMH load at Tercile 1 in the left parietal cortex and angular gyrus (red) overlapping with the left posterior parietal cortex ROI (blue). Overlapping region is shown in purple. (B) The brain slice shows the negative association between voxel-wise GMV and WMH load at Tercile 3 in the left and right parietal cortex (red) overlapping with the right posterior parietal cortex ROI (blue). Overlapping regions are shown in purple. Results are shown at the uncorrected p<0.001 height threshold with an extent threshold of 100 voxels. Results are displayed on representative sections of the MNI template brain. In axial slices, the left side of the image corresponds to the left side of the brain. (C) In tercile 1, GMV in the left posterior parietal cortex was positively related to WMH load. No relationship was observed at tercile 2. At tercile 3, on the other hand, the inverse was observed, with increasing WMH load relating to lower GMV in the posterior parietal cortex. (D) Similarly, in the right posterior parietal cortex, increasing WMH load in the highest tercile 3 was related to lower GMV. Abbreviations: GMV, grey matter volume; WMH, white matter hyperintensity; Ter, Tercile; L, left; R, right; PPC, posterior parietal cortex; ROI, region of interest.