Post mTBI fatigue is associated with abnormal brain functional connectivity

Abstract

This study set out to investigate the behavioral correlates of changes in resting-state functional connectivity before and after performing a 20 minute continuous psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) for patients with chronic post-concussion syndrome. Ten patients in chronic phase after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) with persisting symptoms of fatigue and ten matched healthy controls participated in the study. We assessed the participants’ fatigue levels and conducted resting-state fMRI before and after a sustained PVT. We evaluated the changes in brain functional connectivity indices in relation to the subject’s fatigue behavior using a quantitative data-driven analysis approach. We found that the PVT invoked significant mental fatigue and specific functional connectivity changes in mTBI patients. Furthermore, we found a significant linear correlation between self-reported fatigue and functional connectivity in the thalamus and middle frontal cortex. Our findings indicate that resting-state fMRI measurements may be a useful indicator of performance potential and a marker of fatigue level in the neural attentional system.

The relationship between thyroid hormone levels and cognitive functions in Graves’ disease might be influenced by a history of mild traumatic brain injury

“…They were not subjects for rehabilitation or any litigation processes, but still when including them in the analyses results were influenced, particularly so the correlation between hormone levels and neuropsychological tests results. In another study on persisting fatigue among self-selected patients with mTBI, we found a reduced connectivity in the thalamus and middle frontal gyrus on fMRI leading to increased activation of cortical networks after a vigilance task [30]. To some extent patients are capable of functional compensation by activating larger brain areas, which also has been proven in patients with thyroid dysfunction [31].…”

Association Between Sleep Quality and Subjective Fatigue in Night-Shift Nurses with Good and Poor Sleep

“…Therefore, subjective fatigue on VAS might not fully reflect fatigue in this study. However, there is no commonly accepted objective measure of fatigue [35]. Furthermore, although fatigue measure was subjective in this study, fatigue scores in the same measure have been reported to correlate with autonomic nervous activity [32,33] and functional connectivity in the brain [35].…”

“…However, there is no commonly accepted objective measure of fatigue [35]. Furthermore, although fatigue measure was subjective in this study, fatigue scores in the same measure have been reported to correlate with autonomic nervous activity [32,33] and functional connectivity in the brain [35]. In addition, shift-working nurses with high subjective fatigue on VAS displayed an increase of salivary cortisol level [36].…”

Systematic review on the characterization of chronic traumatic encephalopathy by MRI and MRS

“…The age range of all studies was from school level to retirement age (13.5–74 years). Of all included in vivo studies, 22 used an age‐matched control group . All articles were published between 1994 and 2018.…”

“…From the 25 included studies, 14 used diverse MR techniques . Twenty‐one studies applied structural MRI, including T 1 ‐weighted (T 1 ‐w), T 2 ‐weighted (T 2 ‐w), fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), and proton‐density weighted (PD‐w) imaging . Thirteen studies used diffusion MRI, specifically diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), generalized q‐sampling imaging (GQI), diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) .…”