Atypical resting state functional connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Radiology
• Neurology

Background:

• Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to persistent postconcussive symptoms.
• Understanding alterations in intrinsic functional connectivity networks (IFCNs) is crucial for mTBI assessment.
• Key IFCNs include the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN), and task-positive network (TPN).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate changes in three IFCNs (DMN, SN, TPN) following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
• To explore the relationship between functional connectivity alterations and persistent postconcussive symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were collected from 27 mTBI patients and 26 controls.
• IFCNs were analyzed using seed-to-voxel, region-of-interest (ROI) to ROI, and independent component analyses (ICA).
• Correlation analysis was performed between functional connectivity and symptom scores.

Main Results:

• Decreased DMN connectivity in the right lateral parietal lobe and increased SN connectivity in the supramarginal gyrus were observed.
• The TPN exhibited both hypo- and hyperconnectivity, while the visual network showed within-network hypoconnectivity.
• ICA revealed altered connectivity in sensorimotor, visual, DMN, and dorsal attentional networks, with a negative correlation between dorsal attentional network connectivity and symptom severity.

Conclusions:

• rs-fMRI can identify disrupted functional connectivity in IFCNs among mTBI patients.
• Findings suggest rs-fMRI may aid in mTBI diagnosis and prognosis.
• This could be valuable for athletes returning to play and individuals managing persistent postconcussive symptoms.