A voxel-based approach to gray matter asymmetries

Abstract

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to analyze gray matter (GM) asymmetries in a large sample (n = 60) of male and female professional musicians with and without absolute pitch (AP). We chose to examine these particular groups because previous studies using traditional region-of-interest (ROI) analyses have shown differences in hemispheric asymmetry related to AP and gender. Voxel-based methods may have advantages over traditional ROI-based methods since the analysis can be performed across the whole brain with minimal user bias. After determining that the VBM method was sufficiently sensitive for the detection of differences in GM asymmetries between groups, we found that male AP musicians were more leftward lateralized in the anterior region of the planum temporale (PT) than male non-AP musicians. This confirmed the results of previous studies using ROI-based methods that showed an association between PT asymmetry and the AP phenotype. We further observed that male non-AP musicians revealed an increased leftward GM asymmetry in the postcentral gyrus compared to female non-AP musicians, again corroborating results of a previously published study using ROI-based methods. By analyzing hemispheric GM differences across our entire sample, we were able to partially confirm findings of previous studies using traditional morphometric techniques, as well as more recent, voxel-based analyses. In addition, we found some unusually pronounced GM asymmetries in our musician sample not previously detected in subjects unselected for musical training. Since we were able to validate gender-and AP-related brain asymmetries previously described using traditional ROI-based morphometric techniques, the results of our analyses support the use of VBM for examinations of GM asymmetries. D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gray matter asymmetries in chimpanzees as revealed by voxel-based morphometry

“…Moreover, the distribution of leftward and rightward asymmetries as revealed by VBM are comparable to, and do not differ significantly from, those found using ROI approaches (see Table 2). In human brains, similar consistencies between VBM and ROI analyses have been reported, at least with respect to the PT (Luders et al, 2004;Watkins et al, 2001). The consistency between findings using VBM and traditional ROI approaches suggests that the asymmetries in the chimpanzee brain are robust and not attributable to observer bias or other extraneous factors, as has been suggested (Crow, 2004).…”

“…VBM has been used effectively to measure gray and white matter asymmetries in humans (Good et al, 2001;Luders et al, 2004;Watkins et al, 2001) and offers several advantages over traditional ROI techniques for measuring brain asymmetries. First, VBM allows for an assessment of asymmetries in tissue composition (e.g.…”

Cerebral Blood Flow Improvement after Indirect Revascularization for Pediatric Moyamoya Disease: A Statistical Analysis of Arterial Spin-Labeling MRI

“…Native T1-weighted images were segmented into gray matter, white matter, and CSF by using the VBM8 segmentation toolbox (http:// www.neuro.uni-jena.de/vbm/). 9 The ASL images were coregistered to the corresponding native gray images and spatially normalized to the Montreal Neurological Institute space by using the deformation matrices from the segmentation process. The resulting ASL images were smoothed by using an isotropic Gaussian filter of 10 mm.…”

Abnormal Brain Density in Victims of Rape with PTSD in Mainland China: A Voxel-Based Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…Furthermore, the measurement of volume may not accurately reflect changes in the internal structure of the brain. In recent years, a fully automated voxel-based morphometry (VBM) technique has allowed for the examination of cerebral asymmetries across the entire brain directly (Corbo et al, 2005;Kasai et al, 2008;Luders et al, 2004), which can compensate for the subjectivity of ROI approaches. The VBM technique has been used for assessing regional gray matter density (GMD) (per unit volume in native space) in PTSD patients and revealed abnormal GMD in the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, and insula (Emdad et al, 2006;Jatzko et al, 2006a;Richert et al, 2006;Kasai et al, 2008;Luders et al, 2004).…”

“…In recent years, a fully automated voxel-based morphometry (VBM) technique has allowed for the examination of cerebral asymmetries across the entire brain directly (Corbo et al, 2005;Kasai et al, 2008;Luders et al, 2004), which can compensate for the subjectivity of ROI approaches. The VBM technique has been used for assessing regional gray matter density (GMD) (per unit volume in native space) in PTSD patients and revealed abnormal GMD in the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex, and insula (Emdad et al, 2006;Jatzko et al, 2006a;Richert et al, 2006;Kasai et al, 2008;Luders et al, 2004). Most previous PTSD studies in the West focused on the disorder caused by various traumatic events, such as war (Vythilingam et al, 2005;Bremner et al, 1995;Pavic et al, 2007), disaster (Jatzko et al, 2006a, b;Abe et al, 2006;Li et al, 2006;Yamasue et al, 2003), and sexual abuse (Bremner et al, 2003;Tupler&De Bellis, 2006).…”