Task-evoked BOLD responses are normal in areas of diaschisis after stroke

Exploring Representation of Diverse Samples in fMRI Studies Conducted in Patients With Cardiac-Related Chronic Illness: A Focused Systematic Review

Introduction/Purpose: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and in the United States alone, CVD causes nearly 840,000 deaths annually. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a tool to assess brain activity, researchers have identified some brain-behavior connections and predicted several self-management behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the sample characteristics of individuals with CVD who participated in fMRI studies. Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus. No date or language restrictions were applied and research methodology filters were used. In October 2017, 1659 titles and abstracts were identified. Inclusion criteria were: (1) utilized an empirical study design, (2) used fMRI to assess brain activity, and (3) focused on patients with CVD-related chronic illness. Articles were excluded if they: were theory or opinion articles, focused on mental or neuropathic illness, included non-human samples, or were not written in English. After duplicates were removed (230), 1,429 titles and abstracts were reviewed based on inclusion criteria; 1,243 abstracts were then excluded. A total of 186 studies were reviewed in their entirety; after additional review, 142 were further excluded for not meeting the inclusion criteria. Forty-four articles met criteria and were included in the final review. An evidence table was created to capture the demographics of each study sample. Results: Ninety eight percent of the studies did not report the racial or ethnic composition of their sample. Most studies (66%) contained more men than women. Mean age ranged from 38 to 78 years; 77% reported mean age ≥50 years. The most frequently studied CVD was stroke (86%), while hypertension was studied the least (2%). Conclusion: Understanding brain-behavior relationships can help researchers and practitioners tailor interventions to meet specific patient needs. These findings suggest that additional studies are needed that focus on populations historically underrepresented in fMRI research. Researchers should thoughtfully consider diversity and purposefully sample groups by including individuals that are: women, from diverse backgrounds, younger, and diagnosed with a variety of CVD-related illnesses. Identifying and addressing these gaps by studying more representative samples will help healthcare providers reduce disparities and tailor interventions for all CVD populations.

Diaschisis: past, present, future

After a century of false hopes, recent studies have placed the concept of diaschisis at the centre of the understanding of brain function. Originally, the term 'diaschisis' was coined by von Monakow in 1914 to describe the neurophysiological changes that occur distant to a focal brain lesion. In the following decades, this concept triggered widespread clinical interest in an attempt to describe symptoms and signs that the lesion could not fully explain. However, the first imaging studies, in the late 1970s, only partially confirmed the clinical significance of diaschisis. Focal cortical areas of diaschisis (i.e. focal diaschisis) contributed to the clinical deficits after subcortical but only rarely after cortical lesions. For this reason, the concept of diaschisis progressively disappeared from the mainstream of research in clinical neurosciences. Recent evidence has unexpectedly revitalized the notion. The development of new imaging techniques allows a better understanding of the complexity of brain organization. It is now possible to reliably investigate a new type of diaschisis defined as the changes of structural and functional connectivity between brain areas distant to the lesion (i.e. connectional diaschisis). As opposed to focal diaschisis, connectional diaschisis, focusing on determined networks, seems to relate more consistently to the clinical findings. This is particularly true after stroke in the motor and attentional networks. Furthermore, normalization of remote connectivity changes in these networks relates to a better recovery. In the future, to investigate the clinical role of diaschisis, a systematic approach has to be considered. First, emerging imaging and electrophysiological techniques should be used to precisely map and selectively model brain lesions in human and animals studies. Second, the concept of diaschisis must be applied to determine the impact of a focal lesion on new representations of the complexity of brain organization. As an example, the evaluation of remote changes in the structure of the connectome has so far mainly been tested by modelization of focal brain lesions. These changes could now be assessed in patients suffering from focal brain lesions (i.e. connectomal diaschisis). Finally, and of major significance, focal and non-focal neurophysiological changes distant to the lesion should be the target of therapeutic strategies. Neuromodulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation is one of the most promising techniques. It is when this last step will be successful that the concept of diaschisis will gain all the clinical respectability that could not be obtained in decades of research.

Examining mechanisms of brain control of bladder function with resting state functional connectivity MRI

AIMS

This aim of this study is to identify the brain mechanisms involved in bladder control.

METHODS

We used fMRI to identify brain regions that are activated during bladder filling. We then used resting state connectivity fMRI (rs-fcMRI) to assess functional connectivity of regions identified by fMRI with the rest of the brain as the bladder is filled to capacity.

RESULTS

Female participants (n = 20) were between ages 40 and 64 with no significant history of symptomatic urinary incontinence. Main effect of time (MET) fMRI analysis resulted in 20 regions of interest (ROIs) that have significant change in BOLD signal (z = 3.25, P <0.05) over the course of subtle bladder filling and emptying regardless of full versus empty bladder state. Bladder-state by time (BST) fMRI analysis resulted in three ROIs that have significant change in BOLD signal (z = 3.25, P <0.05) over the course of bladder runs comparing full versus empty bladder state. Rs-fcMRI fixed effects analysis identified significant changes in connectivity between full and empty bladder states in seven brain regions (z = 4.0) using the three BST ROIs and sixteen brain regions (z = 7) using the twenty MET ROIs. Regions identified include medial frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate (PCC), inferiolateral temporal and post-central gyrus, amygdale, the caudate, inferior parietal lobe as well as anterior and middle cingulate gyrus.

CONCLUSIONS

There is significant and vast changes in the brain's functional connectivity when bladder is filled suggesting that the central process responsible for the increased control during the full bladder state appears to largely rely on the how distributed brain systems are functionally integrated.

Changes in hemodynamic responses in chronic stroke survivors do not affect fMRI signal detection in a block experimental design

The use of canonical functions to model BOLD-fMRI data in people post-stroke may lead to inaccurate descriptions of task-related brain activity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the spatiotemporal profile of hemodynamic responses (HDRs) obtained from stroke survivors during an event-related experiment could be used to develop individualized HDR functions that would enhance BOLD-fMRI signal detection in block experiments. Our long term goal was to use this information to develop individualized HDR functions for stroke survivors that could be used to analyze brain activity associated with locomotor-like movements. We also aimed to examine the reproducibility of HDRs obtained across two scan sessions in order to determine whether data from a single event-related session could be used to analyze block data obtained in subsequent sessions. Results indicate that the spatiotemporal profile of HDRs measured with BOLD-fMRI in stroke survivors was not the same as that observed in individuals without stroke. We observed small between-group differences in the rates of rise and decline of HDRs that were more apparent in individuals with cortical as compared to subcortical stroke. There were no differences in the peak or time to peak of HDRs in people with and without stroke. Of interest, differences in HDRs were not as substantial as expected from previous reports and were not large enough to necessitate the use of individualized HDR functions to obtain valid measures of movement-related brain activity. We conclude that all strokes do not affect the spatiotemporal characteristics of HDRs in such a way as to produce inaccurate representations of brain activity as measured by BOLD-fMRI. However, care should be taken to identify individuals whose BOLD-fMRI data may not provide an accurate representation of underlying brain activation when canonical models are used. Examination of HDRs need not be done for each scan session, as our data suggest that the characteristics of HDRs in stroke survivors are reproducible across days.

What is the nature of poststroke language recovery and reorganization?

This review focuses on three main topics related to the nature of poststroke language recovery and reorganization. The first topic pertains to the nature of anatomical and physiological substrates in the infarcted hemisphere in poststroke aphasia, including the nature of the hemodynamic response in patients with poststroke aphasia, the nature of the peri-infarct tissue, and the neuronal plasticity potential in the infarcted hemisphere. The second section of the paper reviews the current neuroimaging evidence for language recovery in the acute, subacute, and chronic stages of recovery. The third and final section examines changes in connectivity as a function of recovery in poststroke aphasia, specifically in terms of changes in white matter connectivity, changes in functional effective connectivity, and changes in resting state connectivity after stroke. While much progress has been made in our understanding of language recovery, more work needs to be done. Future studies will need to examine whether reorganization of language in poststroke aphasia corresponds to a tighter, more coherent, and efficient network of residual and new regions in the brain. Answering these questions will go a long way towards being able to predict which patients are likely to recover and may benefit from future rehabilitation.

Neuroimaging in aphasia treatment research: quantifying brain lesions after stroke

New structural and functional neuroimaging methods continue to rapidly develop, offering promising tools for cognitive neuroscientists. In the last 20 years, advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have provided invaluable insights into how language is represented and processed in the brain and how it can be disrupted by damage to, or dysfunction of, various parts of the brain. Current functional MRI (fMRI) approaches have also allowed researchers to purposefully investigate how individuals recover language after stroke. This paper presents recommendations for quantification of brain lesions derived from discussions among international researchers at the Neuroimaging in Aphasia Treatment Research Workshop held at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois, USA). Methods for detailing and characterizing the brain damage that can influence results of fMRI studies in chronic aphasic stroke patients are discussed. Moreover, we aimed to provide the reader with a set of general practical guidelines and references to facilitate choosing adequate structural imaging strategies that facilitate fMRI studies in aphasia treatment research.

Double dissociation of two cognitive control networks in patients with focal brain lesions

Neuroimaging studies of cognitive control have identified two distinct networks with dissociable resting state connectivity patterns. This study, in patients with heterogeneous damage to these networks, demonstrates network independence through a double dissociation of lesion location on two different measures of network integrity: functional correlations among network nodes and within-node graph theory network properties. The degree of network damage correlates with a decrease in functional connectivity within that network while sparing the nonlesioned network. Graph theory properties of intact nodes within the damaged network show evidence of dysfunction compared with the undamaged network. The effect of anatomical damage thus extends beyond the lesioned area, but remains within the bounds of the existing network connections. Together this evidence suggests that networks defined by their role in cognitive control processes exhibit independence in resting data.