Associations Between Neurocognitive Patterns and Mean Diffusivity in Childhood Brain Tumor Survivors

Oregon Convention Center 

Limited research exists on the inter-individual variability of neurocognitive patterns in childhood brain tumor survivors. Our study aims to assess cognitive patterns and their association with brain substructure mean diffusivity (MD), a measure of isotropic diffusion indicating microstructural injury. Using Group-based multi-trajectory modeling with intelligence quotient (IQ), processing speed (PS), and working memory (WM), we identified two distinct neurocognitive patterns: a High-Group (55%) with sustained high cognitive performance and a Low-Group (45%) exhibiting decreasing performance over time. High-Group patients, less likely to undergo radiation, showed significantly lower MD in the hippocampus (β=-45, p=0.045), middle frontal gyrus (β=-43, p=0.02), thalamus (β=-35, p=0.02), inferior frontal gyrus (β=-34, p=0.01), and superior frontal gyrus (β=-35, p=0.02) compared to Low-Group in unadjusted linear mixed models. Adjusting for age, sex, and interaction with time, High-Group patients exhibited a decreasing trend in MD compared to Low-Group, suggesting greater microstructural injury progression in these regions in the low-performance compared to high-performance group.

multi-trajectory modeling

mean diffusivity

Neurocognitive

Brain Tumor 

Section on Statistics in Imaging