White matter tract correlations with spoken language in cerebrovascular disease

• DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcaf145
• Publication Date: 2025-04-19T10:52:35Z
• Authors: Dana N Broberg; Seyyed M H Haddad; Katharine Aveni; Alexander Havens; Paula M McLaughlin; Malcolm A Binns; Joseph B Orange; Stephen R Arnott; Courtney Berezuk; Leanne K Casaubon; Dar Dowlatshahi; Ayman Hassan; Nuwan D Nanayakkara; Alicia J Peltsch; Joel Ramirez; Gustavo Saposnik; Christopher J M S...; Richard H Swartz; Sean Symons; Angela K Troyer; ; Agessandro Abrahao; Sabrina Adamo; Derek Beaton; Sandra Black; Alanna Black; Michael Borrie; Don Brien; Susan Bronskill; Dennis Bulman; Brian Coe; Ben Cornish; Sherif Defrawy; Jane Lawrence Dewar; Allison Ann Dilliott; Roger A Dixon; Sali Farhan; Frederico Faria; Elizabeth Finger; Corinne Fischer; Andrew Frank; Julia Fraser; Morris Freedman; Mahdi Ghani; Barry Greenberg; David Grimes; Wendy Hatch; Rob Hegele; Melissa Holmes; Chris Hudson; Mandar Jog; Peter Kleinstiver; Sanjeev Kumar; Donna Kwan; Tony Lang; Elena Leontieva; Brian Levine; Wendy Lou; Efrem Mandelcorn; Jennifer Mandzia; Ed Margolin; Connie Marras; Mario Masellis; Bill McIlroy; Manuel Montero-Od...; Doug Munoz; David Munoz; Miracle Ozzoude; Stephen Pasternak; Bruce Pollock; Tarek Rajji; Natalie Rashkovan; John Robinson; Ekaterina Rogaeva; Demetrios Sahlas; Yanina Sarquis Ad...; Dallas Seitz; Christen Shoesmith; Alisia Southwell; Tom Steeves; Michael Strong; Stephen Strother; Sujeevini Sujanthan; Kelly Sunderland; Brian Tan; David Tang-Wai; Carmela Tartaglia; Faryan Tayyari; Athena Theyers; John Turnbull; Karen Van Ooteghem; John Woulfe; Modjeh Zamyadi; Lorne Zinman; Angela C Roberts; Robert Bartha
• Keywords: White (mutation); Spoken Language

Abstract Assessment of spoken language is a promising marker for cognitive impairment in individuals with cerebrovascular disease. However, the underlying neurological basis beyond single words and sentences remains poorly defined this cohort, particularly respect to white matter. This study aimed examine compare matter hyperintensity volumes diffusion tensor metrics normal-appearing (NAWM) as potential correlates performance. Baseline imaging data were obtained from disease cohort Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (n = 127; age: 55–85 years). Most participants had subclinical or very mild strokes, little no aphasia symptoms. Spoken samples analysed compute 10 different measures related syntax, productivity, lexical diversity, fluency, information content. Structural MRI segment hyperintensities tracts. Normalized volume, well average fractional anisotropy mean diffusivity portion eight tracts, correlated using canonical correlation analyses. White variate scores individual then separately male 86) female 41) probe sex differences. performance was significantly associated (rc 0.51, P 0.041) 0.56, 0.011) NAWM, left superior longitudinal fasciculus, but not 0.41, 0.80) same Measures content loaded most strongly variate. No significant differences found NAWM microstructure, exhibited similarly strong associations between microstructure (fractional anisotropy: z 1.44, 0.15; diffusivity: 1.03, 0.30). These results suggest that may be volumetrics when evaluating role tract integrity on outcomes people relatively pathology. also demonstrate multi-domain analysis sensitive without aphasia, supporting its value tool assessing status.