title: Neural correlates of delayed visual-motor performance in children treated for brain tumours.
abstract: Both structural and functional neural integrity is critical for healthy cognitive function and performance. Across studies, it is evident that children who are affected by neurological insult commonly demonstrate impaired cognitive abilities. Children treated with cranial radiation for brain tumours suffer substantial structural damage and exhibit a particularly high correlation between the degree of neural injury and cognitive deficits. However the pathophysiology underlying impaired cognitive performance in this population, and many other paediatric populations affected by neurological injury or disease, is unknown. We wished to investigate the characteristics of neuronal function during visual-motor task performance in a group of children who were treated with cranial radiation for brain tumours. We used Magnetoencephalography to investigate neural function during visual-motor reaction time (RT) task performance in 15 children treated with cranial radiation for Posterior Fossa malignant brain tumours and 17 healthy controls. We found that, relative to controls, the patient group showed: 1) delayed latencies for neural activation in both visual and motor cortices; 2) muted motor responses in the alpha (8-12Hz) and beta (13-29Hz) bandwidths, and 3) potentiated visual and motor responses in the gamma (30-100Hz) bandwidth. Collectively these observations indicate impaired neural processing during visual-motor RT performance in this population and that delays in the speed of visual and motor neuronal processing both contribute to the delays in the behavioural response. As increases in gamma activity are often observed with increases in attention and effort, increased gamma activities in the patient group may reflect compensatory neural activity during task performance. This is the first study to investigate neural function in real-time during cognitive performance in paediatric brain tumour patients.
authors.affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Psychology, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dockstader
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gaetz
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bouffet
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Tabori
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Stefan R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bostan
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laughlin
authors.forename: Donald J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mabbott
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000528:radiation effects; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000528:radiation effects*
keywords: Brain tumours; Cognition; Magnetoencephalography; Neurological insult; Visual–motor processing