Thalamocortical Sensorimotor Circuit Damage Associated with Disorders of Consciousness for Diffuse Axonal Injury Patients

• Published in: Journal of the neurological sciences Vol. 356; no. 1; pp. 168 - 174
• Main Authors: Yao, Shun, Song, Jian, Gao, Lichen, Yan, Yan, Huang, Cheng, Ding, Huichao, Huang, He, He, Yuanzhi, Sun, Ronghui, Xu, Guozheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15.09.2015
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Anisotropy; Awareness; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; Cerebral Cortex - pathology; Consciousness Disorders - complications; Consciousness Disorders - pathology; Cross modality correlation analysis; Diffuse axonal injury; Diffuse Axonal Injury - complications; Diffuse Axonal Injury - pathology; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; Disorders of consciousness; Female; Glasgow Coma Scale; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Neural Pathways - blood supply; Neural Pathways - pathology; Neurology; Oxygen - blood; Resting state fMRI; Self awareness; Statistics as Topic; Thalamus - blood supply; Thalamus - pathology; Young Adult; Resting state fMRI; Cross modality correlation analysis; Self awareness; Diffuse axonal injury; Disorders of consciousness; Diffusion tensor imaging
• ISSN: 0022-510X; 1878-5883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2015.06.044

Abstract The relationship of structural and functional brain damage and disorders of consciousness (DOC) for diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is still not fully explored. We employed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI) to examine the changes of resting activations and white matter (WM) integrity for DAI with DOC. WM damages were observed in the body and genu of the corpus callosum, right external capsule (EC) and superior corona radiate (SCR), left superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) and posterior thalamic radiation (PTR). The RS-fMRI revealed augmented amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, insula, amygdala and putamen, and reduced ALFF in the precuneus, thalamus, pre-central and post-central gyri. Correlation analysis identified positive associations between the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and activation of the precuneus and between GCS and DTI measurements in the left PTR and SCP, but a negative correlation was found between GCS and activation of the thalamus. Cross modality association analyses indicated that activations of the amygdala and postcentral gyrus were correlated with DTI measurements of the right EC and left PTR respectively. These results implicate that the WM damages in thalamocortical sensorimotor circuit and aberrant brain activity responding to self-awareness and sensation are critical factors to DOC, which expand the current understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying DAI.