title: Decreased parietal cortex activity during mental rotation in children with congenital hypothyroidism.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability to detect the spatial characteristics of objects and to rotate them mentally is frequently impaired in early treated congenital hypothyroidism (CH) children.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the neural substrate of the visuospatial difficulty in children with CH, we studied 15 children with CH (8-10 years) and 13 age-matched control children with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a mental rotation task (VST).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Performance at VST was significantly different between the two groups. Moreover, fMRI data showed greater activation in the superior parietal cortex in control children while children with CH had greater activation in the bilateral SMA and the opercular region of the precentral gyrus, the adjacent insula and the left somatosensory parietal cortex. Furthermore, children with CH deactivated the inferior parietal cortex (Brodmann area 40) more than controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We suggest that the poorer performance of children with CH on VST task is related to the decreased activation in brain areas important for the mental representation of the objects' spatial characteristics, with increased recruitment of regions involved in the representation of somatosensory whole-body information. More studies will be necessary to understand if this different effectiveness in VST reflects immaturity of the neural system or its actual impairment.
authors.affiliation: Neuroradiology, CERMAC, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. blasi.valeria@hsr.it
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Blasi
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Longaretti
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giovanettoni
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baldoli
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pontesilli
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vigone
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saccuman
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nigro
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chiumello
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scotti
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weber
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D003409:Congenital Hypothyroidism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception