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Updated: Mar 13, 2026
fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals
Published on: May 23, 2017
Brain Activity in Patients With Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia Detected by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Asanori Kiyuna1, Norimoto Kise1, Munehisa Hiratsuka1
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, 207 Uehara, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan.
Objectives:
Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is considered a focal dystonia. However, the detailed pathophysiology of SD remains unclear, despite the detection of abnormal activity in several brain regions. The aim of this study was to clarify the pathophysiological background of SD.
Study Design:
This is a case-control study.
Methods:
Both task-related brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging by reading the five-digit numbers and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) measured by 150 T2-weighted echo planar images acquired without any task were investigated in 12 patients with adductor SD and in 16 healthy controls.
Results:
The patients with SD showed significantly higher task-related brain activation in the left middle temporal gyrus, left thalamus, bilateral primary motor area, bilateral premotor area, bilateral cerebellum, bilateral somatosensory area, right insula, and right putamen compared with the controls. Region of interest voxel FC analysis revealed many FC changes within the cerebellum-basal ganglia-thalamus-cortex loop in the patients with SD. Of the significant connectivity changes between the patients with SD and the controls, the FC between the left thalamus and the left caudate nucleus was significantly correlated with clinical parameters in SD.
Conclusion:
The higher task-related brain activity in the insula and cerebellum was consistent with previous neuroimaging studies, suggesting that these areas are one of the unique characteristics of phonation-induced brain activity in SD. Based on FC analysis and their significant correlations with clinical parameters, the basal ganglia network plays an important role in the pathogenesis of SD.
