fMRI Resting-State Connectivity between Language and Nonlanguage Areas as Defined by Intraoperative Electrocortical Stimulation in Low-Grade Glioma Patients

Multiscale network neuroscience in neuro-oncology: How tumors, brain networks, and behavior connect across scales

Network neuroscience refers to the investigation of brain networks across different spatial and temporal scales, and has become a leading framework to understand the biology and functioning of the brain. In neuro-oncology, the study of brain networks has revealed many insights into the structure and function of cells, circuits, and the entire brain, and their association with both functional status (e.g., cognition) and survival. This review connects network findings from different scales of investigation, with the combined aim of informing neuro-oncological healthcare professionals on this exciting new field and also delineating the promising avenues for future translational and clinical research that may allow for application of network methods in neuro-oncological care.

What Can Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Explain about the Functional Brain Connectivity in Glioma Patients?

Resting-state functional MRI has been increasingly implemented in imaging protocols for the study of functional connectivity in glioma patients as a sequence able to capture the activity of brain networks and to investigate their properties without requiring the patients’ cooperation. The present review aims at describing the most recent results obtained through the analysis of resting-state fMRI data in different contexts of interest for brain gliomas: the identification and localization of functional networks, the characterization of altered functional connectivity, and the evaluation of functional plasticity in relation to the resection of the glioma. An analysis of the literature showed that significant and promising results could be achieved through this technique in all the aspects under investigation. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement, especially in terms of stability and generalizability of the outcomes. Further research should be conducted on homogeneous samples of glioma patients and at fixed time points to reduce the considerable variability in the results obtained across and within studies. Future works should also aim at establishing robust metrics for the assessment of the disruption of functional connectivity and its recovery at the single-subject level.