TY - JOUR
T1 - Functional connectivity for somatosensory and motor cortex in spastic diplegia
AU - Burton, Harold
AU - Dixit, Sachin
AU - Litkowski, Patricia
AU - Wingert, Jason R.
N1 - Funding Information:
‘‘The project described was supported by Award Number R01 NS37237 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke or the National Institutes of Health. Additional funds provided by the McDonnell Center for Higher Brain Function.’’ Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest, and they alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Functional connectivity (fcMRI) was analyzed in individuals with spastic diplegia and age-matched controls. Pearson correlations (r-values) were computed between resting state spontaneous activity in selected seed regions (sROI) and each voxel throughout the brain. Seed ROI were centered on foci activated by tactile stimulation of the second fingertip in somatosensory and parietal dorsal attention regions. The group with diplegia showed significantly expanded networks for the somatomotor but not dorsal attention areas. These expanded networks overran nearly all topological representations in somatosensory and motor areas despite a sROI in a fingertip focus. A possible underlying cause for altered fcMRI in the group with dipegia, and generally sensorimotor deficits in spastic diplegia, is that prenatal third trimester white-matter injury leads to localized damage to subplate neurons. We hypothesize that intracortical connections become dominant in spastic diplegia through successful competition with diminished or absent thalamocortical inputs. Similar to the effects of subplate ablations on ocular dominance columns (Kanold and Shatz, Neuron 2006;51:627638), a spike timing-dependent plasticity model is proposed to explain a shift towards intracortical inputs.
AB - Functional connectivity (fcMRI) was analyzed in individuals with spastic diplegia and age-matched controls. Pearson correlations (r-values) were computed between resting state spontaneous activity in selected seed regions (sROI) and each voxel throughout the brain. Seed ROI were centered on foci activated by tactile stimulation of the second fingertip in somatosensory and parietal dorsal attention regions. The group with diplegia showed significantly expanded networks for the somatomotor but not dorsal attention areas. These expanded networks overran nearly all topological representations in somatosensory and motor areas despite a sROI in a fingertip focus. A possible underlying cause for altered fcMRI in the group with dipegia, and generally sensorimotor deficits in spastic diplegia, is that prenatal third trimester white-matter injury leads to localized damage to subplate neurons. We hypothesize that intracortical connections become dominant in spastic diplegia through successful competition with diminished or absent thalamocortical inputs. Similar to the effects of subplate ablations on ocular dominance columns (Kanold and Shatz, Neuron 2006;51:627638), a spike timing-dependent plasticity model is proposed to explain a shift towards intracortical inputs.
KW - Diplegia
KW - Humans
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Spontaneous activity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=74549200366&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3109/08990220903335742
DO - 10.3109/08990220903335742
M3 - Article
C2 - 20047510
AN - SCOPUS:74549200366
SN - 0899-0220
VL - 26
SP - 90
EP - 104
JO - Somatosensory and Motor Research
JF - Somatosensory and Motor Research
IS - 4
ER -