Altered Functional Connectivity of Cognitive-Related Cerebellar Subregions in Well-Recovered Stroke Patients

Abstract

The cerebellum contains several cognitive-related subregions that are involved in different functional networks. The cerebellar crus II is correlated with the frontoparietal network (FPN), whereas the cerebellar IX is associated with the default-mode network (DMN). These two networks are anticorrelated and cooperatively implicated in cognitive control, which may facilitate the motor recovery in stroke patients. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) changes in 25 subcortical ischemic stroke patients with well-recovered global motor function. Consistent with previous studies, the crus II was correlated with the FPN, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex, and the cerebellar IX was correlated with the DMN, including the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/Pcu), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), DLPFC, lateral parietal cortices, and anterior temporal cortices. No significantly increased rsFCs of these cerebellar subregions were found in stroke patients, suggesting that the rsFCs of the cognitive-related cerebellar subregions are not the critical factors contributing to the recovery of motor function in stroke patients. The finding of the disconnection in the cerebellar-related cognitive control networks may possibly explain the deficits in cognitive control function even in stroke patients with well-recovered global motor function.

Differential Reorganization of SMA Subregions After Stroke: A Subregional Level Resting-State Functional Connectivity Study

“…Our findings are consistent with previous rsFC studies that revealed decreased rsFC (Yin et al, 2012) or resting-state effective connectivity (Inman et al, 2012) of the motor-related areas with prefrontal and parietal brain areas associated with cognitive control. Besides, our research group have found the disconnection between the cerebellar subregion crus II with the cognitive control frontoparietal network, which may explain the deficits in cognitive control function (Li et al, 2013). Although our findings suggest rsFC deficits within the motor control network even in well-recovered stroke patients, future studies should be performed on the relationship between the rsFC deficit and the fine cognitive dysfunction in a more direct way.…”

“…It should be noted that the dataset of the present study has been applied in an early study that aimed to elucidate the reorganization of the functional connectivity of the cognitiverelated cerebellar subregions after chronic stroke (Li et al, 2013). Except for the overlapped dataset and similar connectivity-based method, the scientific questions, parcellation methods, major findings, and results interpretation in the present study were much different from those in the early study by Li et al (2013).…”

“…According to these criteria, 25 patients (seven females and 18 males; mean age: 56.2 years; range: 42-72 years) were finally included in this study ( Table 1). The lesion location has been described in detail in an earlier work (Li et al, 2013). Twenty-two right-handed, age-matched, healthy controls (11 females and 11 males; mean age: 57.2 years; range: 47-74 years) were also recruited as controls who reported no history of psychiatric or neurological disorders.…”

Altered Resting-State Signals in Patients with Acute Stroke In or Under the Thalamus

“…Stroke is a common condition that can cause various degrees of neurological defects with a high probability of long-term disability [1][2][3][4][5]. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), previous studies have shown that an activation response to upper limb stimulation may be absent in the somatosensory cortical representation after stroke [6].…”

“…Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has been used widely [11][12][13][14]. In stroke patients, altered resting-state connectivity and corresponding neurological deficits have been demonstrated in recent studies [2,11]. And scientists generally study brain function in the resting-state at three levels: (1) brain region, (2) functional connectivity between brain areas, and (3) the whole-brain functional network.…”