Abnormal Effective Connectivity of the Anterior Forebrain Regions in Disorders of Consciousness

Abstract

A number of studies have indicated that disorders of consciousness result from multifocal injuries as well as from the impaired functional and anatomical connectivity between various anterior forebrain regions. However, the specific causal mechanism linking these regions remains unclear. In this study, we used spectral dynamic causal modeling to assess how the effective connections (ECs) between various regions differ between individuals. Next, we used connectome-based predictive modeling to evaluate the performance of the ECs in predicting the clinical scores of DOC patients. We found increased ECs from the striatum to the globus pallidus as well as from the globus pallidus to the posterior cingulate cortex, and decreased ECs from the globus pallidus to the thalamus and from the medial prefrontal cortex to the striatum in DOC patients as compared to healthy controls. Prediction of the patients' outcome was effective using the negative ECs as features. In summary, the present study highlights a key role of the thalamo-basal ganglia-cortical loop in DOCs and supports the anterior forebrain mesocircuit hypothesis. Furthermore, EC could be potentially used to assess the consciousness level.

Disruptions in Effective Connectivity within and between Default Mode Network and Anterior Forebrain Mesocircuit in Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness

“…In line with our structural findings, dynamic causal modelling (DCM) provided support to the PCC's role in mediating functional disconnections in the DMN in PDOC [6]. Similarly, a recent study demonstrated abnormal effective connectivity in anterior forebrain regions in PDOC [29]. Here, we expand these results by using DCM to investigate causal dynamics within and between regions of the DMN and AFM in a group of PDOC patients, including both diagnoses of vegetative and minimally conscious state.…”

Altered Effective Connectivity of Children and Young Adults With Unilateral Amblyopia: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…EC depends on the mechanism of the causal effects that generated from the data, which can reflect the specific strength and direction of interaction information in the brain region ( Stephan and Friston, 2010 ). Some researchers began to apply EC to fMRI analysis ( Sharaev et al, 2016 ; Wang et al, 2016 ; Park et al, 2017 ; Chen et al, 2018 ; Ma et al, 2018 ). EC can be analyzed by various methods.…”

Time-delay structure predicts clinical scores for patients with disorders of consciousness using resting-state fMRI

“…Previous studies reported the abnormal functional interactions of precuneus in DOC patients by using either static FC ( Qin et al, 2015 , Stender et al, 2014 , Wu et al, 2019 ) or dynamic FC ( Cao et al, 2019 , Luppi et al, 2019 ). Several recent dynamic causal modelling (DCM) studies ( Chen et al, 2018a , Crone et al, 2017 , Crone et al, 2015 ) also found the disrupted effective connectivity between PCC/precuneus and other regions (e.g., medial frontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and globus pallidus) in DOC patients, reflecting the abnormal information flow related to precuneus at ROI level.…”