Cortical Complexity of Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3

Each voxel of gray matter in every T1-weighted image was anatomically assigned to the resulting 97 labeled brain regions, which were displayed in different colors in the lower right panel.   

Cortical and sub-cortical regions defined in Automated Anatomical Labeling template image in standard stereotaxic space (Each region is divide into left and right).

The cortical dysfunction of SCA3 patients in cerebellar cortex (SARA; left vertical axis) and in cerebral cortex (MMSE; reight vertical axis) were incoherent.

The result shows significantly increasing SARA scores throughout duration of disease (r = 0.5672; p = 0.0344), but nonsignificant correlation between MMSE scores and duration of disease (r = -0.2138; p = 0.4100). (SARA: Y = 0.72494x+7.6755; MMSE: Yp = -0.0182x+28.6531). 

Cerebral cortex of SCA3 patients.

(a) significant decrease in 3D-FD values in comparison with that of normal subjects. (b) A significant correlation was observed between decreased 3D-FD values and disease duration in cerebral cortex of SCA3 (r = -0.0330, p = 0.0287). 

Cerebellar cortex of SCA3 patients.

(a) significant decrease in 3D-FD values in comparison with that of normal subjects. (b) A significant correlation was observed between decreased 3D-FD values and disease duration in cerebellar cortex of SCA3 (r = -0.0318, p = 0.0354). 

 Widespread area in supratentorial regions show decreased 3D-FD value in SCA3 patients.

(a, b) Frontal and parietal lobe of SCA3 exhibit decreased 3D-FD values, respectively. c, d Green, aqua-blue, violet and blue regions exhibit decreased 3D-FD value in the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, subcortical regions and limbic system, respectively. 

The progression rates of cortical atrophy in the supratentorial regions were similar.

(a) Excluding the age effect, the 3D-FD values of 32 cerebral regions had significant negative correlations with disease duration. (b) No significant difference was observed among these individual regions using ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc analysis (Degrees of freedom for regions = 98 and F = 0.02)