The application of a mathematical model linking structural and functional connectomes in severe brain injury

Following severe injuries that result in disorders of consciousness, recovery can occur over many months or years post-injury. While post-injury synaptogenesis, axonal sprouting and functional reorganization are known to occur, the network-level processes underlying recovery are poorly understood. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage clinical 2016-01, Vol.11 (C), p.635-647
Main Authors: Kuceyeski, A, Shah, S, Dyke, J P, Bickel, S, Abdelnour, F, Schiff, N D, Voss, H U, Raj, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain Injuries - diagnostic imaging
Brain Injuries - pathology
Brain Injuries - physiopathology
Brain Mapping
Connectome
Connectomics
Disorders of consciousness
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Theoretical
Network analysis
Network diffusion model
Neural Pathways - diagnostic imaging
Neural Pathways - physiopathology
Neuroimaging
Oxygen - blood
Regular
Young Adult
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Summary:Following severe injuries that result in disorders of consciousness, recovery can occur over many months or years post-injury. While post-injury synaptogenesis, axonal sprouting and functional reorganization are known to occur, the network-level processes underlying recovery are poorly understood. Here, we test a network-level functional rerouting hypothesis in recovery of patients with disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury. This hypothesis states that the brain recovers from injury by restoring normal functional connections via alternate structural pathways that circumvent impaired white matter connections. The so-called network diffusion model, which relates an individual's structural and functional connectomes by assuming that functional activation diffuses along structural pathways, is used here to capture this functional rerouting. We jointly examined functional and structural connectomes extracted from MRIs of 12 healthy and 16 brain-injured subjects. Connectome properties were quantified via graph theoretic measures and network diffusion model parameters. While a few graph metrics showed groupwise differences, they did not correlate with patients' level of consciousness as measured by the Coma Recovery Scale - Revised. There was, however, a strong and significant partial Pearson's correlation (accounting for age and years post-injury) between level of consciousness and network diffusion model propagation time (r = 0.76, p 
ISSN:2213-1582
2213-1582
DOI:10.1016/j.nicl.2016.04.006