Longitudinal prediction of motor dysfunction after stroke: a disconnectome study

Abstract

Motricity is the most commonly affected ability after a stroke. While many clinical studies attempt to predict motor symptoms at different chronic time points after a stroke, longitudinal acute-to-chronic studies remain scarce. Taking advantage of recent advances in mapping brain disconnections, we predict motor outcomes in 62 patients assessed longitudinally two weeks, three months, and one year after their stroke. Results indicate that brain disconnection patterns accurately predict motor impairments. However, disconnection patterns leading to impairment differ between the three time points and between left and right motor impairments. These results were cross-validated using resampling techniques. In sum, we demonstrated that while some neuroplasticity mechanisms exist changing the structure-function relationship, disconnection patterns prevail when predicting motor impairment at different time points after stroke.

Stroke disconnectome decodes reading networks

“…Decoding task-based functional MRI imaging using a disconnectome framework is a new and promising method to link structural connectivity with function and behaviour using brain disconnections. This method has already been successfully applied to various cognitive functions and behaviours (Dulyan et al 2021 ; Thiebaut de Schotten et al 2020 ) and offers an indirect measure of the structural connectivity supporting functional activations. To directly predict reading impairments and estimate measures of reading impairments, we provide the maps associated with this study on Neurovault for future research.…”