INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 03 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 09:30 am - 10:40 am Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120) Poster Session 03: Neurotrauma \| Neurovascular Final Abstract #83 Bilateral Amygdala Volume Predicts Metacognitive Performance in Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury Michael Walsh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, United States Erica Weber, Kessler Foundation, West Orange, United States Ekaterina Dobryakova, Kessler Foundation, West Orange, United States Kathy Chiou, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, United States Category: Acquired Brain Injury (TBI/Cerebrovascular Injury and Disease - Adult) Keyword 1: metacognition Keyword 2: neuroimaging: structural Keyword 3: traumatic brain injury Objective: Metacognition refers to the ability to observe, make judgments about, and alter behavior in response to one’s own cognitive status. The circuits subserving metacognition are primarily associated with the frontoparietal cortex, but recent findings implicate the involvement of the limbic system in metacognitive monitoring. In particular, the amygdalae are shown to play a role in forming confidence judgments about cognitive performance and influence metacognitive decision-making under emotionally-valenced conditions of uncertainty, stress, or reward. Changes to the structure and function of the amygdalae are frequently observed after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and are linked to altered emotion regulation and social cognition. Impaired metacognition is also a feature of TBI, but its relation to the structural characteristics of the limbic system and amygdalae remains poorly understood. Thus, the current study seeks to determine if volume of the bilateral amygdala is related to metacognitive performance in individuals who have experienced TBI. Participants and Methods: 13 participants with chronic moderate-to-severe TBI underwent structural MRI and completed a metacognition task in which they were exposed to target slides with a set of polygons placed in specific locations. They were then asked to identify the target slides within a set of distractors and rate on a Likert scale how confident they were that each answer they provided was correct. The concordance of participants’ response accuracy and confidence judgement accuracy was assessed using type 2 signal detection theory analysis in order to generate a value of metacognitive accuracy, called meta-d′. Bilateral amygdala gray matter volumes were extracted from segmented regions of interest using FreeSurfer. A linear regression was then performed to examine the relationship between participants’ bilateral amygdala volume and meta-d′, controlling for total intracranial volume, age, sex, time since injury, and depression and anxiety symptom severity. Results: Participants had an average meta-d′ value of -0.149 (σ = 0.748) and an average bilateral amygdala volume of 3295 mm³ (σ = 599 mm³). Higher amygdala volumes significantly predicted higher meta-d′ (i.e., better metacognitive accuracy), after accounting for total intracranial volume, age, sex, time since injury, and depression and anxiety symptom severity (ß = 0.900, p = 0.028). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that bilateral amygdala volume is predictive of metacognitive performance in individuals who have sustained TBI. These findings add to burgeoning evidence that demonstrates the amygdala's involvement in certain metacognitive processes, such as the confidence judgments made by participants during this study’s task. Additionally, this role of the amygdala warrants further exploration of how metacognitive circuitry uses emotion-related information when individuals engage in metacognitive monitoring and decision-making. While the present study is limited in its ability to test causal effects of TBI on amygdala structure and disrupted metacognition, the addition of a control comparison group may help to ascertain whether or not these observations are unique to the TBI population. Nonetheless, they highlight a possible supporting role of the limbic system in metacognitive functioning.

Poster

02/15/2024
09:30 am - 10:40 am
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)

Poster Session 03: Neurotrauma | Neurovascular

Final Abstract #83

Bilateral Amygdala Volume Predicts Metacognitive Performance in Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury

Michael Walsh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, United States
Erica Weber, Kessler Foundation, West Orange, United States
Ekaterina Dobryakova, Kessler Foundation, West Orange, United States
Kathy Chiou, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, United States

Category: Acquired Brain Injury (TBI/Cerebrovascular Injury and Disease - Adult)

Keyword 1: metacognition
Keyword 2: neuroimaging: structural
Keyword 3: traumatic brain injury

Objective:

Metacognition refers to the ability to observe, make judgments about, and alter behavior in response to one’s own cognitive status. The circuits subserving metacognition are primarily associated with the frontoparietal cortex, but recent findings implicate the involvement of the limbic system in metacognitive monitoring. In particular, the amygdalae are shown to play a role in forming confidence judgments about cognitive performance and influence metacognitive decision-making under emotionally-valenced conditions of uncertainty, stress, or reward. Changes to the structure and function of the amygdalae are frequently observed after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and are linked to altered emotion regulation and social cognition. Impaired metacognition is also a feature of TBI, but its relation to the structural characteristics of the limbic system and amygdalae remains poorly understood. Thus, the current study seeks to determine if volume of the bilateral amygdala is related to metacognitive performance in individuals who have experienced TBI.

Participants and Methods:

13 participants with chronic moderate-to-severe TBI underwent structural MRI and completed a metacognition task in which they were exposed to target slides with a set of polygons placed in specific locations. They were then asked to identify the target slides within a set of distractors and rate on a Likert scale how confident they were that each answer they provided was correct. The concordance of participants’ response accuracy and confidence judgement accuracy was assessed using type 2 signal detection theory analysis in order to generate a value of metacognitive accuracy, called meta-d′. Bilateral amygdala gray matter volumes were extracted from segmented regions of interest using FreeSurfer. A linear regression was then performed to examine the relationship between participants’ bilateral amygdala volume and meta-d′, controlling for total intracranial volume, age, sex, time since injury, and depression and anxiety symptom severity.

Results:

Participants had an average meta-d′ value of -0.149 (σ = 0.748) and an average bilateral amygdala volume of 3295 mm³ (σ = 599 mm³). Higher amygdala volumes significantly predicted higher meta-d′ (i.e., better metacognitive accuracy), after accounting for total intracranial volume, age, sex, time since injury, and depression and anxiety symptom severity (ß = 0.900, p = 0.028).

Conclusions:

The results of this study suggest that bilateral amygdala volume is predictive of metacognitive performance in individuals who have sustained TBI. These findings add to burgeoning evidence that demonstrates the amygdala's involvement in certain metacognitive processes, such as the confidence judgments made by participants during this study’s task. Additionally, this role of the amygdala warrants further exploration of how metacognitive circuitry uses emotion-related information when individuals engage in metacognitive monitoring and decision-making. While the present study is limited in its ability to test causal effects of TBI on amygdala structure and disrupted metacognition, the addition of a control comparison group may help to ascertain whether or not these observations are unique to the TBI population. Nonetheless, they highlight a possible supporting role of the limbic system in metacognitive functioning.