TY - JOUR
T1 - Visuospatial processing in children with neurofibromatosis type 1
AU - Clements-Stephens, Amy M.
AU - Rimrodt, Sheryl L.
AU - Gaur, Pooja
AU - Cutting, Laurie E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine General Clinical Research Center (NIH grant M01-RR00052), U.S. Congressionally Directed Materiel and Medical Command (DAMD17-00-1-0548), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH grant RO1 NS049096), and the F.M. Kirby Research Center (NIH/NCRR grant P41RR15241).
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Neuroimaging studies investigating the neural network of visuospatial processing have revealed a right hemisphere network of activation including inferior parietal lobe, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and extrastriate regions. Impaired visuospatial processing, indicated by the Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO), is commonly seen in individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). Nevertheless, few studies have examined the neural activity associated with visuospatial processing in NF-1, in particular, during a JLO task. This study used functional neuroimaging to explore differences in volume of activation in predefined regions of interest between 13 individuals with NF-1 and 13 controls while performing an analogue JLO task. We hypothesized that participants with NF-1 would show anomalous right hemisphere activation and therefore would recruit regions within the left hemisphere to complete the task. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to test for differences between groups in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions. Results indicate that, as predicted, controls utilized various right hemisphere regions to complete the task, while the NF-1 group tended to recruit left hemisphere regions. These results suggest that the NF-1 group has an inefficient right hemisphere network. An additional unexpected finding was that the NF-1 group showed decreased volume of activation in primary visual cortex (BA 17). Future studies are needed to examine whether the decrease in primary visual cortex is related to a deficit in basic visual processing; findings could ultimately lead to a greater understanding of the nature of deficits in NF-1 and have implications for remediation.
AB - Neuroimaging studies investigating the neural network of visuospatial processing have revealed a right hemisphere network of activation including inferior parietal lobe, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and extrastriate regions. Impaired visuospatial processing, indicated by the Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO), is commonly seen in individuals with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF-1). Nevertheless, few studies have examined the neural activity associated with visuospatial processing in NF-1, in particular, during a JLO task. This study used functional neuroimaging to explore differences in volume of activation in predefined regions of interest between 13 individuals with NF-1 and 13 controls while performing an analogue JLO task. We hypothesized that participants with NF-1 would show anomalous right hemisphere activation and therefore would recruit regions within the left hemisphere to complete the task. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to test for differences between groups in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions. Results indicate that, as predicted, controls utilized various right hemisphere regions to complete the task, while the NF-1 group tended to recruit left hemisphere regions. These results suggest that the NF-1 group has an inefficient right hemisphere network. An additional unexpected finding was that the NF-1 group showed decreased volume of activation in primary visual cortex (BA 17). Future studies are needed to examine whether the decrease in primary visual cortex is related to a deficit in basic visual processing; findings could ultimately lead to a greater understanding of the nature of deficits in NF-1 and have implications for remediation.
KW - Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO)
KW - Neurofibromatosis
KW - Visuospatial processing
KW - fMRI
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.09.013
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.09.013
M3 - Article
C2 - 17988695
AN - SCOPUS:38749104239
SN - 0028-3932
VL - 46
SP - 690
EP - 697
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
IS - 2
ER -