TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - Ventromedial prefrontal-anterior cingulate hyperconnectivity and resilience to apathy in traumatic brain injury JO - Journal of neurotrauma A1 - Hogeveen, Jeremy A1 - Aragon, Denicia F. A1 - Rogge-Obando, Kimberly A1 - Campbell, Richard A1 - Shuttleworth, C. William A1 - Rieger, Rebecca E. A1 - Yeo, Ron A1 - Wilson, J. Kevin A1 - Fratzke, Violet A1 - Brandt, Emma A1 - Story Remer, Jacqueline Hope A1 - Gill, Darbi A1 - Mayer, Andrew A1 - Cavanagh, James F. A1 - Quinn, Davin SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - Apathy is a common and impairing sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, little is known about the neural mechanisms determining which patients do or do not develop apathy post-TBI. Here we aimed to elucidate the impact of TBI on motivational neural circuits, and how this shapes apathy over the course of TBI recovery. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data were collected in patients with subacute mild TBI (N=44), chronic mild-to-moderate TBI (N=26), and non-brain-injured control participants (CTRL; N=28). We measured ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functional connectivity (FC) as a function of apathy, using an a priori vmPFC seed adopted from a motivated decision making study in an independent TBI study cohort. Patients reported apathy using a well-validated tool for assaying apathy in TBI. vmPFC-to-wholebrain FC was contrasted between groups, and we fit regression models with apathy predicting vmPFC FC. Subacute and chronic TBI caused increased apathy relative to CTRL, replicating prior work suggesting that apathy has an enduring impact in TBI. vmPFC was functionally connected to the canonical default network, and this architecture did not differ between subacute TBI, chronic TBI, and CTRL groups. Critically, in TBI, increased apathy scores predicted decreased vmPFC-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) FC. Lastly, we subdivided the TBI group based on patients above versus below the threshold for "clinically-significant apathy," finding that TBI patients with clinically-significant apathy demonstrated comparable vmPFC-dACC FC to CTRLs, whereas TBI patients with subthreshold apathy scores demonstrated vmPFC-dACC hyperconnectivity relative to both CTRLs and patients with clinically-significant apathy. Post-TBI vmPFC-dACC hyperconnectivity may represents an adaptive compensatory response, helping to maintain motivation and enabling resilience to the development of apathy after neurotrauma. Given the role of vmPFC-dACC circuits in value-based decision making, rehabilitation strategies designed to improve this ability may help to reduce apathy and improve functional outcomes in TBI.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0897-7151 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/neu.2020.7363 ID - ref1 ER -