Development of brain atlases for early-to-middle adolescent collision-sport athletes

Authors

Yukai Zou, Purdue UniversityFollow
Wenbin Zhu, Purdue UniversityFollow
Ho-Ching Yang, Purdue UniversityFollow
Ikbeom Jang, Purdue UniversityFollow
Nicole L. Vike, Purdue UniversityFollow
Diana O. Svaldi, Purdue University
Trey E. Shenk, Purdue University
Victoria N. Poole, Purdue University
Evan L. Breedlove, Purdue University
Gregory G. Tamer Jr, Purdue UniversityFollow
Larry J. Leverenz, Purdue UniversityFollow
Ulrike Dydak, Purdue UniversityFollow
Eric A. Nauman, Purdue UniversityFollow
Yunjie Tong, Purdue UniversityFollow
Thomas M. Talavage, Purdue UniversityFollow
Joseph V. Rispoli, Purdue UniversityFollow

Recommended Citation

Zou, Yukai; Zhu, Wenbin; Yang, Ho-Ching; Jang, Ikbeom; Vike, Nicole L.; Svaldi, Diana O.; Shenk, Trey E.; Poole, Victoria N.; Breedlove, Evan L.; Tamer, Gregory G. Jr; Leverenz, Larry J.; Dydak, Ulrike; Nauman, Eric A.; Tong, Yunjie; Talavage, Thomas M.; and Rispoli, Joseph V., "Development of brain atlases for early-to-middle adolescent collision-sport athletes" (2021). Purdue University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund. Paper 149.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85518-6

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-85518-6

Date of this Version

3-19-2021

Abstract

Human brains develop across the life span and largely vary in morphology. Adolescent collision-sport athletes undergo repetitive head impacts over years of practices and competitions, and therefore may exhibit a neuroanatomical trajectory different from healthy adolescents in general. However, an unbiased brain atlas targeting these individuals does not exist. Although standardized brain atlases facilitate spatial normalization and voxel-wise analysis at the group level, when the underlying neuroanatomy does not represent the study population, greater biases and errors can be introduced during spatial normalization, confounding subsequent voxel-wise analysis and statistical findings. In this work, targeting early-to-middle adolescent (EMA, ages 13–19) collision-sport athletes, we developed population-specific brain atlases that include templates (T1-weighted and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging) and semantic labels (cortical and white matter parcellations). Compared to standardized adult or age-appropriate templates, our templates better characterized the neuroanatomy of the EMA collision-sport athletes, reduced biases introduced during spatial normalization, and exhibited higher sensitivity in diffusion tensor imaging analysis. In summary, these results suggest the population-specific brain atlases are more appropriate towards reproducible and meaningful statistical results, which better clarify mechanisms of traumatic brain injury and monitor brain health for EMA collision-sport athletes.

Comments

This is the publisher PDF of Zou, Y., Zhu, W., Yang, HC. et al. Development of brain atlases for early-to-middle adolescent collision-sport athletes. Scientific Reports 11, 6440 (2021). This article is distributed under a CC-BY license, and is available at DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-85518-6.