Longitudinal Changes of Sensorimotor Resting-State Functional Connectivity Differentiate between Patients with Thalamic Infarction and Pontine Infarction

Abstract

Purpose. We investigated the disparate influence of lesion location on functional damage and reorganization of the sensorimotor brain network in patients with thalamic infarction and pontine infarction. Methods. Fourteen patients with unilateral infarction of the thalamus and 14 patients with unilateral infarction of the pons underwent longitudinal fMRI measurements and motor functional assessment five times during a 6-month period (<7 days, at 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after stroke onset). Twenty-five age- and sex-matched controls underwent MRI examination across five consecutive time points in 6 months. Functional images from patients with left hemisphere lesions were first flipped from the left to the right side. The voxel-wise connectivity analyses between the reference time course of each ROI (the contralateral dorsal lateral putamen (dl-putamen), pons, ventral anterior (VA), and ventral lateral (VL) nuclei of the thalamus) and the time course of each voxel in the sensorimotor area were performed for all five measurements. One-way ANOVA was used to identify between-group differences in functional connectivity (FC) at baseline stage (<7 days after stroke onset), with infarction volume included as a nuisance variable. The family-wise error (FWE) method was used to account for multiple comparison issues using SPM software. Post hoc repeated-measure ANOVA was applied to examine longitudinal FC reorganization. Results. At baseline stage, significant differences were detected between the contralateral VA and ipsilateral postcentral gyrus (cl_VA-ip_postcentral), contralateral VL and ipsilateral precentral gyrus (cl_VL-ip_precentral). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the FC change of cl_VA-ip_postcentral differ significantly among the three groups over time. The significant changes of FC between cl_VA and ip_postcentral at different time points in the thalamic infarction group showed that compared with 7 days after stroke onset, there was significantly increased FC of cl_VA-ip_postcentral at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after stroke onset. Conclusions. The different patterns of sensorimotor functional damage and reorganization in patients with pontine infarction and thalamic infarction may provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying functional recovery after stroke.

Altered Dynamic Resting State Functional Connectivity Associated With Somatosensory Impairments in the Upper Limb in the Early Sub-Acute Phase Post-Stroke

“…This is in line with our findings of decreased inter-domain connectivity. 43 Previous literature already has shown differences in dynamic functional connectivity of different phases post stroke 18 or lesion location 47 which is consistent with our differences in findings. The highly intra-domain connected state was previously reported to be associated with enhanced levels of brain plasticity 48 and could indicate the recovery process of the brain in the subacute phase post-stroke.…”

Scalp acupuncture regulates functional connectivity of cerebral hemispheres in patients with hemiplegia after stroke

“…Although the enhanced activation of the contralateral brain region after stroke can promote functional rehabilitation in the short term, it could also cause wrong movement patterns such as associated movement, which has adverse effects on the rehabilitation of the neurological function of the damaged hemisphere ( 33 ). The better the prognosis for rehabilitation, the more the degree of abnormal hyperactivation of the healthy hemisphere is reduced during rehabilitation and the more normalized the imbalance in bilateral brain function due to lesion injury ( 26 , 34 ). In this study, some brain regions in the unaffected hemisphere showed enhanced functional connectivity, while the functional connectivity between the left basal ganglia, left temporal lobe, and left marginal lobe was weakened after scalp acupuncture treatment.…”

Improving the understanding of neural mechanisms and guiding targeted therapy for clinical syndrome after thalamic infarction with advanced neuroimaging

“…Ye et al, 2022;Chen Ye et al, 2022]. Advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [Bonkhoff et al, 2020[Bonkhoff et al, , 2021He et al, 2021;Salvalaggio et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2021], diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) [Chen et al, 2019;Jang et al, 2019;Nemati et al, 2022] and positron emission tomography (PET) [Dieterich et al, 2005;Dieterich & Brandt, 2008;Kopelman, 2015;Rudolphi-Solero et al, 2022;Stenset et al, 2007;Weder et al, 1994;Willoch et al, 2004], have made important contributions to our understanding of these mechanisms. Thalamic infarction can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain, including altered white matter integrity [Chuo Li, 2011;Krause et al, 2012], cortical reorganization [He et al, 2021;Krause et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2021], and even brain network dysfunction [Favaretto et al, 2022;He et al, 2021;Hosomi et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2021].…”

“…Advanced neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [Bonkhoff et al, 2020[Bonkhoff et al, , 2021He et al, 2021;Salvalaggio et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2021], diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) [Chen et al, 2019;Jang et al, 2019;Nemati et al, 2022] and positron emission tomography (PET) [Dieterich et al, 2005;Dieterich & Brandt, 2008;Kopelman, 2015;Rudolphi-Solero et al, 2022;Stenset et al, 2007;Weder et al, 1994;Willoch et al, 2004], have made important contributions to our understanding of these mechanisms. Thalamic infarction can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain, including altered white matter integrity [Chuo Li, 2011;Krause et al, 2012], cortical reorganization [He et al, 2021;Krause et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2021], and even brain network dysfunction [Favaretto et al, 2022;He et al, 2021;Hosomi et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2021]. These changes can affect both adjacent and distant brain regions, such as the basal ganglia (motor pathways) [Favaretto et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2021], prefrontal cortex [Krause et al, 2014], sensory pathways [He et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021] and even vision pathways [Holly Bridge, 2011;Millington et al, 2014;Chen Ye et al, 2022], all of which may result in a wide range of clinical symptoms following thalamic infarction.…”

“…Thalamic infarction can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain, including altered white matter integrity [Chuo Li, 2011;Krause et al, 2012], cortical reorganization [He et al, 2021;Krause et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2021], and even brain network dysfunction [Favaretto et al, 2022;He et al, 2021;Hosomi et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2021]. These changes can affect both adjacent and distant brain regions, such as the basal ganglia (motor pathways) [Favaretto et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2021], prefrontal cortex [Krause et al, 2014], sensory pathways [He et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021] and even vision pathways [Holly Bridge, 2011;Millington et al, 2014;Chen Ye et al, 2022], all of which may result in a wide range of clinical symptoms following thalamic infarction. As a result, there has been growing interest in developing neuroimaging-based targeted therapies for individuals affected by thalamic infarction [Elias et al, 2020;Guo et al, 2022;Hosomi et al, 2015].…”