Lesion network mapping for symptom localization: recent developments and future directions.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Systems Neuroscience

Background:

• Focal brain lesions can cause neurological or psychiatric symptoms, but their varied locations complicate precise symptom localization.
• Traditional methods struggle to pinpoint the exact brain region responsible for specific symptoms due to lesion heterogeneity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review lesion network mapping, a technique that maps lesion-induced symptoms to brain circuits instead of individual brain regions.
• To highlight the application of lesion network mapping in investigating clinical entities and identifying therapeutic targets.

Main Methods:

• Lesion network mapping combines lesion locations with a human brain connection atlas (human connectome).
• This approach maps diverse lesion sites causing similar symptoms to a shared neural circuit.

Main Results:

• Successfully applied to over 40 symptoms, providing insights into challenging cases like hallucinations, tics, and blindsight.
• Identified potential therapeutic targets by analyzing lesions that alleviate symptoms such as tremor and addiction.

Conclusions:

• Lesion network mapping offers a powerful method to understand symptom localization by focusing on brain circuits.
• Recent findings illuminate clinical mysteries and suggest novel targets for circuit-based neuromodulation therapies.