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Abnormal structural and functional hypothalamic connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:To investigate whether there is imaging evidence of hypothalamic injury in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), which is a major public health problem due to the high prevalence and difficulty in diagnosis and treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Twenty-four patients (mean age 34.2, range, 18-56 years) with symptomatic MTBI and 22 age-matched healthy controls (mean age 37.0, range 20-61 years) participated in the study. Diffusion kurtosis imaging was performed with diffusion-weighted images acquired along 30 gradient directions and three b-values (b?=?0, 1000, 2000 s/mm2 ) based on a twice-refocused spin-echo sequence with a 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Resting-state functional (f)MRI with standard echo planar imaging (EPI) were performed to localize the resting-state networks (RSN) and hypothalamic functional connectivity. RESULTS:There were significantly reduced mean kurtosis (P?=?0.0092) and radial kurtosis (P?=?0.0078) in patients as compared to controls in the hypothalamus. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation (r?=?-0.675, P?=?0.0007) between radial kurtosis in the hypothalamus and fatigue severity scale in patients. The MTBI group also showed disrupted hypothalamic RSNs, with significantly decreased positive connectivity in medial prefrontal cortex, inferior posterior parietal, and cingulate regions but increased connectivity in the peri-hypothalamic regions and cerebellum, together with significantly decreased negative RSNs in visual and bilateral premotor areas (cluster corrected P < 0.05). CONCLUSION:Our results show disruption of functional and structural hypothalamic connectivity in patients with MTBI, and might further the understanding of an array of clinical symptoms in MTBI such as sleep disturbance and fatigue. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017;45:1105-1112.

SUBMITTER: Zhou Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5274605 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Abnormal structural and functional hypothalamic connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury.

Zhou Yongxia Y

Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 20160728 4

<h4>Purpose</h4>To investigate whether there is imaging evidence of hypothalamic injury in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), which is a major public health problem due to the high prevalence and difficulty in diagnosis and treatment.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>Twenty-four patients (mean age 34.2, range, 18-56 years) with symptomatic MTBI and 22 age-matched healthy controls (mean age 37.0, range 20-61 years) participated in the study. Diffusion kurtosis imaging was performed wit ...[more]

PMID: 27467114

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Project description:Mental fatigue in healthy individuals is typically observed under conditions of high cognitive demand, particularly when effort is required to perform a task for a long period of time-thus the concepts of fatigue and effort are closely related. In brain injured individuals, mental fatigue can be a persistent and debilitating symptom. Presence of fatigue after brain injury is prognostic for return to work/school and engagement in activities of daily life. As such, it should be a high priority for treatment in this population, but because there is little understanding of its behavioral and neural underpinnings, the target for such treatment is unknown. Here, the neural underpinnings of fatigue and effort are investigated in active duty military service members with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and demographically-matched orthopedic controls. Participants performed a Constant Effort task for which they were to hold a pre-defined effort level constant for long durations during fMRI scanning. The task allowed for investigation of the neural systems underlying fatigue and their relationship with sense of effort. While brain activation associated with effort and fatigue did not differentiate the mTBI and controls, functional connectivity amongst active brain regions did. The mTBI group demonstrated immediate hyper-connectivity that increased with effort level but diminished quickly when there was a need to maintain effort. Controls, in contrast, demonstrated a similar pattern of hyper-connectivity, but only when maintaining effort over time. Connectivity, particularly between the left anterior insula, rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and right-sided inferior frontal regions, correlated with effort-level and state fatigue in mTBI participants. These connections also correlated with effort level in the Control group, but only the connection between the left insula and superior medial frontal gyrus correlated with fatigue, suggesting a differing pattern of connectivity. These findings align, in part, with the dopamine imbalance, and neural efficiency hypotheses that pose key roles for medial frontal connections with insular or striatal regions in motivating or optimizing performance. Sense of effort and fatigue are closely related. As people fatigue, sense of effort increases systematically. The data propose a complex link between sense of effort, fatigue, and mTBI that is centered in what may be an inefficient neural system due to brain trauma that warrants further investigation.

Dataset Information

Abnormal structural and functional hypothalamic connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury.

Publications

Abnormal structural and functional hypothalamic connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury.

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