Contralateral Brain Region Exhibits a Hemispheric Difference in Brain Dynamic Functional Connectivity in Patients...

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neurology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Carotid artery stenosis disease impacts brain structure and function.
• Previous studies focused on volume atrophy and structural damage.
• Dynamic functional connectivity (FC) in chronic internal carotid artery (ICA) occlusion requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate contralateral brain dynamic functional connectivity in patients with chronic ICA occlusion.
• Compare FC differences between right and left ICA occlusion.
• Utilize resting-state fMRI for dynamic FC analysis.

Main Methods:

• Recruited patients with chronic right ICA occlusion (n=21) and left ICA occlusion (n=11).
• Included a control group of healthy individuals (n=16).
• Employed resting-state fMRI, cluster analysis, and dynamic graph theory with a sliding window method.

Main Results:

• Right ICA occlusion affected motor sensory and anterior default networks.
• Left ICA occlusion impacted posterior default, salience, and frontal-parietal networks.
• Affected regions were predominantly in the dominant hemisphere.

Conclusions:

• Significant variations in contralateral brain dynamic FC exist in patients with chronic ICA occlusion.
• Side of occlusion influences the specific brain networks affected.
• Dynamic graph theory effectively reveals these hemispheric differences.