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Longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging after traumatic brain injury
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|April 16, 2025
Summary
Traumatic brain injury recovery involves dynamic changes in brain structure and function. Multimodal neuroimaging reveals that structural and functional disruptions converge with neuronal loss over time, suggesting compensatory mechanisms in TBI patients.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Radiology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes long-term cognitive impairment, but recovery mechanisms are unclear.
- Multimodal neuroimaging offers insights into TBI-related micro- and macro-scale changes.
- Relationships between cellular and functional alterations post-TBI require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To longitudinally analyze multimodal neuroimaging biomarkers in TBI.
- To quantify TBI-related pathologies and their temporal changes.
- To correlate regional alterations across flumazenil PET, dMRI, and fMRI.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging (flumazenil PET, dMRI, resting-state fMRI).
- Quantification of four biomarkers: binding potential, structural connectivity, functional connectivity, and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations.
- Correlation analysis of biomarkers at subacute (4-6 months) and chronic (1 year) stages post-TBI.
Main Results:
- Reduced flumazenil-PET binding in frontal/thalamic regions, indicating neuronal loss with partial recovery.
- Initial functional hyperconnectivity in TBI subjects, declining over time but remaining elevated.
- Persistent cortical structural hypoconnectivity and increasing correlation between MRI and PET at the chronic stage.
- Chronic flumazenil-PET reductions correlated with weaker structural/functional node strength and lower low-frequency fluctuations.
- Progressive axonal degradation linked to increased intrinsic regional activity as a compensatory mechanism.
Conclusions:
- Multimodal neuroimaging captures evolving interactions between neuronal integrity, structural connectivity, and functional dynamics post-TBI.
- Findings suggest progressive convergence of structural/functional disruptions with neuronal loss.
- Heightened intrinsic activity may compensate for axonal degradation.
- Understanding these interrelationships can improve prognostic models and knowledge of TBI recovery mechanisms.
