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Abstract #1984

Reduced Hippocampal Body Functional Connectivity in Gulf War Illness

Yan Fang1, Luo Ouyang1, Cybeles Onuegbulem2, Aman Goyal1, Lei Jiang1, Parina Gandhi1, Sandeep Ganji1, Wendy Ringe2, Kaundinya Gopinath1,3, Richard Briggs1,3, Robert Haley3

1Department of Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 3Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States


Memory loss is a common complaint among veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI), and preliminary studies have documented hippocampal dysfunction in GWI. Abnormal functional connectivity to hippocampus has also been observed in various other diseased populations. This study used resting state or functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) to examine functional connectivity of the hippocampus in GWI subjects. GWI veterans exhibited significantly reduced connectivity to left and right hippocampal body in a number of brain regions, indicating disruption of hippocampal networks and/or damage to hippocampus in GWI.

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