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Ed Bullmore

Publications and source records attributed to Ed Bullmore.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Permutation tests for factorially designed neuroimaging experiments.

Permutation methods for analysis of functional neuroimaging data acquired as factorially designed experiments are described and validated. The F ratio was estimated for main effects and interactions at each voxel in standard space. Critical values corresponding to probability thresholds were derived from a null distribution sampled by appropriate permutation of observations. Spatially informed, cluster-level test statistics were generated by applying a preliminary probability threshold to the voxel F maps and then computing the sum of voxel statistics in each of the resulting three-dimensional clusters, i.e., cluster "mass." Using simulations comprising two between- or within-subject factors each with two or three levels, contaminated by Gaussian and non-normal noise, the voxel-wise permutation test was compared to the standard parametric F test and to the performance of the spatially informed statistic using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Validity of the permutation-testing algorithm and software is endorsed by almost identical performance of parametric and permutation tests of the voxel-level F statistic. Permutation testing of suprathreshold voxel cluster mass, however, was found to provide consistently superior sensitivity to detect simulated signals than either of the voxel-level tests. The methods are also illustrated by application to an experimental dataset designed to investigate effects of antidepressant drug treatment on brain activation by implicit sad facial affect perception in patients with major depression. Antidepressant drug effects in left amygdala and ventral striatum were detected by this software for an interaction between time (within-subject factor) and group (between-subject factor) in a representative two-way factorial design.

Algorithms↗

Searching for a structural endophenotype in psychosis using computational morphometry.

Structural cerebral abnormalities are frequently observed in schizophrenia. These abnormalities may indicate vulnerability for the disorder, as evidenced by reports of familial clustering of measures identified through region-of-interest analyses using manual outlining procedures. We used computational morphometry to detect structural differences within the entire brain to further examine possible structural endophenotypes. Magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained in 31 psychotic patients, 32 non-psychotic first-degree relatives of psychotic patients and 27 healthy controls. The images were processed using an automated procedure, yielding global grey matter, white matter, CSF and total brain volume. The relative distribution of grey matter was compared between groups on a clustered-voxel basis. Global grey matter and total brain volume did not differ between the groups. White matter volume was significantly higher and CSF volume significantly lower in relatives compared to both cases and controls. The clustered-voxel based group comparison yielded evidence for significant grey matter deficits in fronto-thalamic-cerebellar regions, in psychotic patients, whereas the most prominent deficits in relatives involved the cerebellum. Patients with psychosis and first-degree healthy relatives of patients with psychosis show cerebellar abnormalities, which may constitute a marker of genetic transmission.

Adolescent↗

Practice and difficulty evoke anatomically and pharmacologically dissociable brain activation dynamics.

Brain activation is adaptive to task difficulty and practice. We used functional MRI to map brain systems activated by an object-location learning task in 24 healthy elderly volunteers each scanned following placebo and two of four active drugs studied. We distinguished a fronto-striatal system adaptive to difficulty from a posterior system adaptive to practice. Fronto-striatal response to increased cognitive load was significantly attenuated by scopolamine, sulpiride and methylphenidate; practice effects were not modulated by these drugs but were enhanced by diazepam. We also found enhancement by methylphenidate, and attenuation by sulpiride, of load response in premotor, cingulate and parietal regions comprising a spatial attention network. Difficulty and practice evoke anatomically and pharmacologically dissociable brain activation dynamics, which are probably mediated by different neurotransmitter systems in humans.

Adrenergic Uptake Inhibitors↗

Wavelets and statistical analysis of functional magnetic resonance images of the human brain.

Wavelets provide an orthonormal basis for multiresolution analysis and decorrelation or 'whitening' of nonstationary time series and spatial processes. Wavelets are particularly well suited to analysis of biological signals and images, such as human brain imaging data, which often have fractal or scale-invariant properties. We briefly define some key properties of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and review its applications to statistical analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. We focus on time series resampling by 'wavestrapping' of wavelet coefficients, methods for efficient linear model estimation in the wavelet domain, and wavelet-based methods for multiple hypothesis testing, all of which are somewhat simplified by the decorrelating property of the DWT.

Brain↗

Modulation of activity in temporal cortex during generation of inner speech.

Monitoring one's thoughts (in the verbal modality) is thought to be critically dependent on the interaction between areas that generate and perceive inner speech in the frontal and temporal cortex, respectively. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the relationship between activity in these areas while the rate of inner speech generation was varied experimentally. The faster rate was associated with activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right pre- and postcentral gyri and both superior temporal gyri. Thus, temporal cortical activation was associated with increasing the rate of covert articulation, in the absence of external auditory input, suggesting that there is effective fronto-temporal connectivity. Furthermore, this may provide support for the existence of feed forward models, which suggest that activity in regions responsible for verbal perception is modulated by activity in areas that generate inner speech.

Adult↗

Nonreplication of the association between ab-ridge count and cerebral structural measures in schizophrenia.

The origins of cerebral abnormalities in psychotic patients remain unknown. Dermatoglyphics are suitable markers of prenatal injury due to their fetal ontogenesis and their susceptibility to some of the factors that also affect cerebral development. In a previous study, positive associations between brain volumetric measures and a dermatoglyphic marker, the ab-ridge count, were reported. The present study is an attempt to replicate that finding in an independent sample. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and dermatoglyphic measures were available for 29 schizophrenia patients (Research Diagnostic Criteria [RDC] criteria) and 26 unrelated healthy controls. The images were processed using an automated procedure, yielding volumes of total grey matter, white matter, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and total brain volume. The ab-ridge count was not positively associated with brain volumes in either patients or controls. The present findings do not support the hypothesis that the changes in brain volume seen in patients with schizophrenia are of prenatal origin.

Adolescent↗