Brain Gray Matter Atrophy after Spinal Cord Injury: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Radiology
• Neurology

Background:

• Spinal cord injury (SCI) can impact brain structure beyond the injury site.
• Understanding remote brain changes is crucial for comprehensive SCI management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whole brain gray matter volume (GMV) changes in SCI patients using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).
• To explore associations between GMV alterations and SCI duration, severity, and clinical variables.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 21 SCI patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs).
• Acquired 3D T1-weighted MRI scans on a 3.0 Tesla system.
• Performed VBM analysis to compare GMV between groups and analyze correlations with clinical data (e.g., ASIA scores).

Main Results:

• SCI patients exhibited significant GMV reduction in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral anterior insula, bilateral orbital frontal cortex (OFC), and right superior temporal gyrus compared to HCs.
• No significant GMV differences were found between complete/incomplete SCI or sub-acute/chronic SCI subgroups.
• Right OFC GMV correlated with motor scores; dACC GMV correlated with total motor scores in sub-acute SCI; right OFC GMV negatively correlated with injury duration in sub-acute SCI.

Conclusions:

• SCI induces remote gray matter atrophy, notably in the salient network.
• Injury duration and severity may not universally correlate with brain atrophy in all SCI patients.
• Specific brain regions show associations with clinical outcomes and injury characteristics in SCI subgroups.