Brain functional organization and structure in patients with arteriovenous malformations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are developmental vascular abnormalities.
• AVMs can potentially alter global brain organization.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the impact of AVMs on functional and structural brain organization.
• Utilize resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) and cortical thickness measures.

Main Methods:

• Compared functional organization and structure in 23 AVM patients and 20 healthy controls.
• Employed rsfMRI and cortical thickness analyses.

Main Results:

• Healthy controls exhibited anti-correlation between default mode network (DMN) and attentional control network.
• AVM patients showed disrupted DMN-attentional network anti-correlation, even with remote lesions.
• Reduced cortical thickness in frontal attentional areas was observed in AVM patients.

Conclusions:

• AVMs impact widespread brain networks, not just the local area.
• Findings support the notion of AVMs affecting whole-brain organization.