Caudate nucleus atrophy as a neuroimaging feature of mild cognitive impairment induced by occupational aluminum exposure
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Occupational aluminum (Al) exposure is linked to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), yet its neuroanatomical mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated gray matter volume (GMV) alterations specifically associated with Al-induced MCI. This study enrolled 86 participants: 30 Al-exposed MCI (Al-MCI), 26 Al-exposed cognitively normal (Al-HC), and 30 non-exposed controls (Non-Al-HC). Structural MRI quantified whole-brain GMV. Plasma Al concentrations, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), and the Trail Making Test (TMT) were assessed in Al-exposed individuals. Intergroup GMV differences were analyzed via ANCOVA. Partial correlations and mediation analyses explored cognition-GMV relationships. We found that Al-MCI and Al-HC showed comparable plasma Al concentrations (42.74 ± 26.00 vs. 32.52 ± 30.86 µg/L, p = 0.184). A graded pattern of bilateral caudate nucleus (CAU) atrophy was observed: most severe atrophy in the Al-MCI group, intermediate atrophy in the Al-HC group, and the largest volumes in the Non-Al-HC group (p < 0.05 for all pairwise comparisons). In Al-exposed individuals, left CAU volume correlated positively with abstraction (r = 0.294, p = 0.028), language (r = 0.321, p = 0.016), and AVLT-immediate recall (r = 0.289, p = 0.030). Right CAU volume correlated negatively with TMT-A error responses (r=-0.306, p = 0.022). In conclusions, CAU atrophy was significantly associated with cognitive decline and may represent a specific neuroimaging feature of occupational Al-induced MCI.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".