Citation

Wang T, Hu Y, Wang D, Liu J, Sun J, Wei C, Dai H, Li Y. J. Neurotrauma 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2021.0267

PMID

34605664

Abstract

In acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the injury-related axonal swelling leads to white matter fiber bundle impairments, closely related to the memory and language deficits commonly shown in the patients. The arcuate fasciculus (AF) plays a central role in verbal learning and language function but could be functionally heterogeneous along the fiber tract. In this study, 25 acute mTBI patients (< 48h after trauma) and thirty-three age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included. Impaired verbal memory and language functions were shown in the patients group compared to the healthy controls. Combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was applied to investigate the altered diffusion measure profiles of the AF tracts and the associated functional features. The fractional anisotropy (FA) in right AF temporal subsegment of the mTBI group was negatively associated with the patient verbal memory function, whereas a positive correlation was found in the healthy control (HC) group. On the other hand, the correlation between the FA in right AF frontal subsegment and the language function in HCs diminished in the patients group. Moreover, the functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and the middle occipital gyrus decreased and its correlation with language function in HCs was absent in the mTBI patients. Our work provides new insights into the understanding of the structural and functional heterogeneity of the AF tracts as well as the distinct associations of its subsegment impairments with verbal memory and language function deficits in acute mTBI patients.

Language: en

Keywords

MRI; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY