Remote Thalamic Microstructural Abnormalities Related to Cognitive Function in Ischemic Stroke Patients Marina Fernández-Andújar University of Barcelona Fleur Doornink Leiden University Medical Center Rosalía Dacosta-Aguayo University of Barcelona and University of the Basque Country Juan José Soriano-Raya and Júlia Miralbell University of Barcelona Núria Bargalló Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain Elena López-Cancio, Natalia Pérez de la Ossa, Meritxell Gomis, and Mònica Millán Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Maite Barrios University of Barcelona Cynthia Cáceres Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Guillem Pera and Rosa Forés Institut Universitari d’Investigació en Atenció Prima `ria Jordi Gol, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona, Spain Imma Clemente University of Barcelona Antoni Dávalos Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Maria Mataró University of Barcelona Objective: Ischemic stroke can lead to a continuum of cognitive sequelae, ranging from mild vascular cognitive impairment to vascular dementia. These cognitive deficits can be influenced by the disruption of cortico-subcortical circuits. We sought to explore remote thalamic microstructural abnormalities and their association with cognitive function after ischemic stroke. Method: Seventeen patients with right hemispheric ischemic stroke and 17 controls matched for age, sex, and years of education were included. All participants underwent neurological, neuropsychological, and diffusion tensor image examination. Patients were assessed 3 months poststroke. Voxel-wise analysis was used to study thalamic diffusion differences between groups. Mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values in significant thalamic areas were calculated for each subject and correlated with cognitive performance. Results: Stroke patients showed lower FA values and higher MD values in specific areas of both the left and right thalamus compared with controls. In patients, decreased FA values were associated with lower verbal fluency performance in the right thalamus (R 2 = 0.45, = 0.74) and the left thalamus (R 2 = 0.57, This article was published Online First June 2, 2014. Marina Fernández-Andújar, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psycho- biology and Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, University of Barce- lona; Fleur Doornink, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden University; Rosalía Dacosta-Aguayo, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiol- ogy, University of Barcelona, and Computational Intelligence Group, Depart- ment of Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificial, University of the Basque Country; Juan José Soriano-Raya, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona; Júlia Miralbell, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology and Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, University of Barcelona; Núria Bargalló, Image Research Plat- form, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain; Elena López-Cancio, Natalia Pérez de la Ossa, Meritxell Gomis, and Mònica Millán, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Maite Barrios, Department of Methodology of Behavioral Sci- ences, University of Barcelona; Cynthia Cáceres, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Guillem Pera and Rosa Forés, Primary Healthcare Research Support Unit Metropolitana Nord, Institut Uni- versitari d’Investigació en Atenció Prima `ria Jordi Gol, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Barcelona, Spain; Imma Clemente, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology and Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Uni- versity of Barcelona; Antoni Dávalos, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Uni- versitat Autònoma de Barcelona; and Maria Mataró, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology and Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, University of Barcelona. Supported by Grant Formació Personal Investigador (Grant PSI2009- 11519), the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant BES-2010 – 031833), and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Grant (Grant TIN2011-23823). We thank all the professionals of the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and the Image Unit of the Hospital Clínic who contributed to this study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maria Mataró, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebrón 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; or Imma Clemente, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebrón 171, 08035 Barce- lona, Spain. E-mail: mmataro@ub.edu or iclemente@ub.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Neuropsychology © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 28, No. 6, 984 –996 0894-4105/14/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000087 984