Findings of LANDSCAPE project gets published in the top journal of rehabilitation

Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) analysis techniques have greatly contributed to detect the anatomical changes in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. With the fast development of transcranial brain stimulation, MRI-based morphometry is increasingly being applied to construct head model and optimize stimulation protocols. For years, converging evidence has accumulated on the clinical trials of brain stimulation, yet, the variability in morphometry limits the application and interpretation at individual level.

In a recent study of research team from the Neuromodulation Lab at the Department of Psychiatry, led by Research Assistant Professor Dr. LU Hanna, performed a study entitled “Localized Analysis of Normalized Distance from Scalp to Cortex and Personalized Evaluation (LANDSCAPE)”. Beyond age-related effects, we focused on ageing effect on region-specific cortical complexity and scalp-to-cortex distance (SCD). We found pronounced ageing effect on the SCD of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), not primary motor cortex (M1) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) converters. The SCD change of left DLPFC from baseline to 3-year follow-up demonstrated better performance to discriminate MCI converters from normal ageing adults than the other morphometric features. The novel findings have been published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation (Rank: 2/115 in the field of Rehabilitation).

Significance of the study: The findings of this study have significant implications in morphometric imaging and precision medicine. Firstly, the identification of SCD in MCI converters that region-specific SCD may be used as a novel imaging biomarker for the early detection of dementia; meanwhile, offering valuable information to optimize the dosage of brain stimulation. Secondly, the newly developed method to quantify the SCD-related electric field changes (i.e., information entropy) may help to improve realistic head model, advancing precision medicine for neurodegenerative diseases in clinical trials (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Three-dimensional geometric simulation model of anodal transcranial current stimulation.

Article in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

“Dynamic changes of region-specific cortical features and scalp-to-cortex distance: implications for transcranial current stimulation modeling” by Hanna Lu, Jing Li, Li Zhang, Sandra Sau Man Chan and Linda Chiu Wa Lam & the Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS).

Link: https://jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12984-020-00764-5

Link to LANDSCAPE project: http://thebrainx.com/landscape/

LANDSCAPE project was supported by the Direct Grant of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (4054495).