Sex-specific differences in resting-state functional brain activity in pediatric concussion
Bhanu Sharma1,2,3, Cameron Nowikow2,4, Carol DeMatteo5,6
1Child Health and Exercise Medicine Program, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S4L8, Canada.
Pediatric concussion affects children, with females showing significant resting-state fMRI alterations one month post-injury. These sex-specific brain connectivity changes suggest different recovery patterns in pediatric concussion.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pediatric Neurology
- Radiology
Background:
- Pediatric concussion incidence is rising, potentially causing long-term symptoms in 30% of children.
- Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) reveals disturbances in pediatric concussion, but sex-differences remain unexplored.
- A sex-specific understanding of pediatric concussion's functional neuropathology is currently limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sex-based differences in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in children with concussion.
- To explore the functional neuropathology of pediatric concussion with a focus on sex-specific alterations.
- To determine if rs-fMRI findings differ between male and female children post-concussion.
Main Methods:
- Secondary analysis of rs-fMRI data from 29 children with concussion and matched controls from the ABIDE-II database.
- Utilized seed-based and region of interest (ROI) analyses to examine sex-based rs-fMRI differences.
- Employed threshold-free cluster enhancement (TFCE) and family-wise error (FWE) correction for statistical significance.
Main Results:
- Females with concussion exhibited significant rs-fMRI alterations, including hypo-connectivity in the salience and default mode networks, and hyper-connectivity with the cerebellum and thalamus.
- Region of interest (ROI) analyses revealed 10 clusters of hypo-connectivity and 5 of hyper-connectivity in females.
- Males with concussion showed minimal rs-fMRI differences compared to healthy males, with only one cluster identified in seed-based analyses and three in ROI analyses.
Conclusions:
- Significant sex-specific alterations in brain connectivity are present in pediatric concussion patients at one month post-injury.
- Observed rs-fMRI differences in females suggest a distinct neuropathological profile compared to males.
- These findings indicate that recovery timelines and therapeutic approaches for pediatric concussion may need to be sex-specific.
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