Editing Delirium (section)

===Neuroimaging===
[[Neuroimaging]] provides an important avenue to explore the mechanisms that are responsible for delirium.<ref name="Nitchingham_2018">{{cite journal | vauthors = Nitchingham A, Kumar V, Shenkin S, Ferguson KJ, Caplan GA | title = A systematic review of neuroimaging in delirium: predictors, correlates and consequences | journal = International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry | volume = 33 | issue = 11 | pages = 1458–1478 | date = November 2018 | pmid = 28574155 | doi = 10.1002/gps.4724 | s2cid = 20723293 }}</ref><ref name="Soiza_2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Soiza RL, Sharma V, Ferguson K, Shenkin SD, Seymour DG, Maclullich AM | title = Neuroimaging studies of delirium: a systematic review | journal = Journal of Psychosomatic Research | volume = 65 | issue = 3 | pages = 239–248 | date = September 2008 | pmid = 18707946 | doi = 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.05.021 }}</ref> Despite progress in the development of [[magnetic resonance imaging]] (MRI), the large variety in imaging-based findings has limited our understanding of the changes in the brain that may be linked to delirium. Some challenges associated with imaging people diagnosed with delirium include participant recruitment and inadequate consideration of important confounding factors such as history of [[dementia]] and/or [[Depression (mood)|depression]], which are known to be associated with overlapping changes in the brain also observed on MRI.<ref name="Nitchingham_2018" />

Evidence for changes in structural and functional markers include: changes in [[White matter|white-matter]] integrity (white matter lesions), decreases in brain volume (likely as a result of tissue [[atrophy]]), abnormal [[Resting state fMRI|functional connectivity]] of brain regions responsible for normal processing of executive function, sensory processing, attention, emotional regulation, memory, and orientation, differences in autoregulation of the vascular vessels in the brain, reduction in cerebral blood flow and possible changes in brain metabolism (including cerebral tissue oxygenation and glucose hypometabolism).<ref name="Nitchingham_2018" /><ref name="Soiza_2008" /> Altogether, these changes in MRI-based measurements invite further investigation of the mechanisms that may underlie delirium, as a potential avenue to improve clinical management of people with this condition.<ref name="Nitchingham_2018" />