Recovery of resting brain connectivity ensuing mild traumatic brain injury

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2015 papers

Abstract

Brains reveal amplified plasticity as they recover from an injury. We aimed to define time dependent plasticity changes in patients recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Twenty-five subjects with mild head injury were longitudinally evaluated within 36 h, 3 and 6 months using resting state functional connectivity (RSFC). Region of interest (ROI) based connectivity differences over time within the patient group and in comparison with a healthy control group were analyzed at p < 0.005. We found 33 distinct ROI pairs that revealed significant changes in their connectivity strength with time. Within 3 months, the majority of the ROI pairs had decreased connectivity in mTBI population, which increased and became comparable to healthy controls at 6 months. Within this diffuse decreased connectivity in the first 3 months, there were also few regions with increased connections. This hyper connectivity involved the salience network and default mode network within 36 h, and lingual, inferior frontal and fronto-parietal networks at 3 months. Our findings in a fairly homogenous group of patients with mTBI evaluated during the 6 month window of recovery defines time varying brain connectivity changes as the brain recovers from an injury. A majority of these changes were seen in the frontal and parietal lobes between 3 and 6 months after injury. Hyper connectivity of several networks supported normal recovery in the first 6 months and it remains to be seen in future studies whether this can predict an early and efficient recovery of brain function.

Related Papers

• → Default mode network as revealed with multiple methods for resting-state functional MRI analysis(2008)159 cited
• → Development of the default-mode network during childhood and adolescence: A longitudinal resting-state fMRI study(2020)147 cited
• → Large-scale brain network connectivity underlying creativity in resting-state and task fMRI: Cooperation between default network and frontal-parietal network(2018)106 cited
• → Sex Differences in the Default Mode Network with Regard to Autism Spectrum Traits: A Resting State fMRI Study(2016)