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Rapid morphological changes in gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (CT) during reading and face processing with structural T1-weighted MRI.
Poster A35 in Poster Session A, Tuesday, October 24, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Mario Braun1, Lisa Kronbichler2,3, Daniel Freinhofer1, Sarah Said-Yürekli1,2,4, Martin Kronbichler1,2; 1Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience & Department of Psychology, Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria., 2Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria., 3Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria., 4Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital, Paracelsus Medical University, Member of the European Reference Network, Epicare, Salzburg, Austria.
Introduction We used T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess rapid changes in macro-level brain morphology in response to reading words and viewing faces. Previous studies have shown that changes in brain morphology can occur after several years or weeks of practicing a skill (e.g., Maguire et al., 2000; Draganski et al., 2004), but recent evidence suggests that morphological changes can occur in less than a few hours (e.g., Tost et al., 2010) or even within minutes in human visual cortex (Mansson et al., 2020) or human motor cortex (Olivo et al., 2022). To investigate whether such rapid plasticity is also evident in higher cognitive processing like reading or face processing, we conducted a randomized balanced within-subject design study in which healthy participants underwent T1-weighted MRI image acquisition while reading or viewing faces. Hypotheses We hypothesized that reading text and viewing faces will change gray matter volume (GMV) and/or cortical thickness (CT) in the visual cortex. Furthermore, we assume that reading will change GMV and/or CT in the visual word form area (VWFA) and that viewing faces will change GMV and/or CT in the fusiform face area (FFA). In addition, we looked into differences in orthographic, phonological and semantic processing in relationship to potentially changes in GMV and CT. Methods We acquired multiple repetitions of structural T1-weighted and functional blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI measurements from 30 subjects performing passive viewing of faces and reading of text passages repeatedly over 30 min. Differences during reading, viewing faces and rest in GMV and CT were analyzed with voxel based and surface based morphometry (VBM/SBM). Results Preliminary results point to a change in GMV in visual cortex (V1, V2) in response to words and faces. Furthermore, compared to rest a trend of a stimulus specific change in GMV for words in the VWFA as well as for faces in the FFA. Conclusion Rapid changes of GMV in response to words and faces in VWFA and FFA suggest that the brain responds with rapid plasticity even in brain areas processing specific visual information in addition to stimulus unspecific GMV changes in early visual cortex (e.g., Mansson et al., 2020; Olivo et al., 2022).
Topic Areas: Morphology, Reading