Motor and language deficits correlate with resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging networks in patients...

Evidence of pre-operative resting state functional magnetic resonance (RS-fMRI) validation by correlating it with clinical pre-operative status in brain tumor patients is scarce. Our aim was to validate the functional relevance of RS-fMRI by investigating the association between RS-fMRI and pre-operative motor and language function performance in patients with brain tumor.

Sixty-nine patients with brain tumors were prospectively recruited. Patients with tumors near precentral gyrus (n = 49) underwent assessment for apparent (paresis) and subtle (finger tapping) deficits. Patients with left frontal tumors in the vicinity of the inferior frontal gyrus (n = 29) underwent assessment for gross (aphasia) and mild language (phonological verbal fluency) deficits. RS-fMRI results were extracted by spatial independent component analysis (ICA).

Motor group: paretic patients showed significantly (P = 0.01) decreased BOLD signal in ipsilesional precentral gyrus when compared to contralesional one. Significantly (P < 0.01) lower BOLD signal was also observed in ipsilesional precentral gyrus of paretics when compared with the non-paretics. In asymptomatic patients, a strong positive correlation (r = 0.68, P < 0.01) between ipsilesional motor cortex BOLD signal and contralesional finger tapping performance was observed. Language group: patients with aphasia showed significantly (P = 0.01) decreased RS-fMRI BOLD signal in left BA 44 when compared with non- aphasics. In asymptomatic patients, a strong positive correlation (r = 0.72, P < 0.01) between BA 44 BOLD signal and phonological fluency performance was observed.

Our results showed that RS-fMRI BOLD signal of motor and language networks were significantly affected by the tumors implying the usefulness of the method for assessment of the underlying functions in brain tumors patients.