Cognitive and white-matter compartment models reveal selective relations 1 between corticospinal tract microstructure and simple reaction time

Karahan, Esin, Costigan, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9164-3081, Graham, Kim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1512-7667, Lawrence, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-2110 and Zhang, Jiaxiang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4758-0394 2019. Cognitive and white-matter compartment models reveal selective relations 1 between corticospinal tract microstructure and simple reaction time. Journal of Neuroscience 39 (30) , pp. 5910-5921. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2954-18.2019

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Abstract

The speed of motor reaction to an external stimulus varies substantially between individuals and is slowed in ageing. However, the neuroanatomical origins of inter-individual variability in reaction time (RT) remain unclear. Here, we combined a cognitive model of RT and a biophysical compartment model of diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) to characterize the relationship between RT and microstructure of the corticospinal tract (CST) and the optic radiation (OR), the primary motor output and visual input pathways associated with visual-motor responses. We fitted an accumulator model of RT to 46 female human participants' behavioral performance in a simple reaction time task. The non-decision time parameter (Ter) derived from the model was used to account for the latencies of stimulus encoding and action initiation. From multi-shell DWI data, we quantified tissue microstructure of the CST and OR with the neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) model as well as the conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model. Using novel skeletonization and segmentation approaches, we showed that DWI-based microstructure metrics varied substantially along CST and OR. The Ter of individual participants was negatively correlated with the NODDI measure of the neurite density in the bilateral superior CST. Further, we found no significant correlation between the microstructural measures and mean RT. Thus, our findings suggest a link between inter-individual differences in sensorimotor speed and selective microstructural properties in white matter tracts.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) Medicine Psychology
Publisher:	Society for Neuroscience
ISSN:	1529-2401
Funders:	Wellcome Trust
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 May 2019
Date of Acceptance:	26 April 2019
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 12:53
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/122248

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