Citation

Rigon A, Duff MC, McAuley E, Kramer A, Voss MW. J. Neurotrauma 2015; 33(11): 977-989.

Affiliation

University of Iowa , G9 Spence Laboratory 308 East Iowa Ave , Iowa City, Iowa, United States , 52240 ; arianna-rigon@uiowa.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2014.3847

PMID

25719433

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often has long term debilitating sequelae in cognitive and behavior-al domains. Understanding how TBI impacts functional integrity of brain networks that underlie these domains is key to guiding future approaches to TBI rehabilitation. In the current study, we investigated the differences in inter-hemispheric functional connectivity (FC) of resting state networks (RSNs) between chronic mild-to-severe TBI patients and normal comparisons (NC), focusing on two externally oriented networks (EONs), the Fronto-parietal Network (FPN) and the Executive Control Network (ECN), one internally oriented network (ION), the Default Mode Network (DMN), and one Somato-motor Network network (SMN). Seed voxel correlation anal-ysis revealed that TBI patients displayed significantly less FC between lateralized seeds and both homologous and non-homologous regions in the opposite hemisphere for EONs but not for DMN or SMN; conversely, TBI patients showed increased FC within regions of the DMN, espe-cially precuneus and parahippocampal gyrus. Region of interest (ROI) correlation analyses con-firmed the presence of significantly higher inter-hemispheric FC in NCs for the FPN (p<.01), and ECN (p<.05), but not for the DMN (p>.05) or SMN (p>.05). Further analysis revealed that performance on a neuropsychological test measuring organizational skills and visuo-spatial abili-ties administered to the TBI group, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, positively correlat-ed with FC between the right FPN and homologous regions. Our findings suggest that distinct RSNs display specific patterns of aberrant FC following TBI: this represents a step forward in the search for biomarkers useful for early diagnosis and treatment of TBI-related of cognitive impairment.

Language: en