Neurobiological Basis of Behavioral Abnormalities in Childhood-Onset Craniopharyngioma Patients with Hypothalamic Involvement

• Applicant: Dr. Jale Özyurt
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 437138353

In humans, circumscribed lesions of the hypothalamus are extremely rare and knowledge of their effects on cognitive, social and emotional functioning is mainly based on lesion studies in animals, and a few single-case studies in humans. Notably, these studies mainly focused on the role of mammillary bodies (in the posterior hypothalamus) in learning and memory. The role of the anterior hypothalamus in cognitive, social and emotional functioning in humans is nearly unknown.Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques and newly developed brain parcellation and classification methods now allow for a better identification and classification of brain lesions in the hypothalamus. In addition, craniopharyngiomas, rare brain tumors, which often involve the hypothalamus, may provide a unique model for hypothalamic lesion effects. We aim to investigate, in patients with childhood-onset craniopharyngioma, whether damage to the anterior or posterior part of the hypothalamus is associated with different effects on brain and behavior. Patients will be recruited from the childhood-onset craniopharyngioma cohort, enrolled in the German Craniopharyngioma Registry and aged at least 14 years at study time (n=513). Based on knowledge about hypothalamic connectivity, we hypothesize that lesions of the mammillary bodies in the posterior hypothalamus are likely to result in impairments of episodic memory, and changes in areas of the posterior limbic network (hippocampus, anterior thalamus, posterior cingulate). We further hypothesize that lesions of the anterior hypothalamus are associated with deficits in social-emotional and social-cognitive functioning, and changes in the anterior limbic network (amygdala, orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortex). We believe that results will contribute to both, basic and clinical research by expanding our knowledge on hypothalamic and hypothalamic networks’ contribution to human behavior, and in the long term, by providing risk profiles for craniopharyngioma patients to guide individualized therapy.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Christiane M. Thiel