Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury

Reciprocal communication of the central and peripheral nervous systems is compromised during spinal cord injury due to neurotrauma of ascending and descending pathways. Changes in brain organization after spinal cord injury have been associated with differences in prognosis. Changes in functional co...

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Main Authors: Alkinoos Athanasiou, Nikos Terzopoulos, Niki Pandria, Ioannis Xygonakis, Nicolas Foroglou, Konstantinos Polyzoidis, Panagiotis D. Bamidis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Neural Plasticity
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/9354207
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author Alkinoos Athanasiou
Nikos Terzopoulos
Niki Pandria
Ioannis Xygonakis
Nicolas Foroglou
Konstantinos Polyzoidis
Panagiotis D. Bamidis
author_facet Alkinoos Athanasiou
Nikos Terzopoulos
Niki Pandria
Ioannis Xygonakis
Nicolas Foroglou
Konstantinos Polyzoidis
Panagiotis D. Bamidis
author_sort Alkinoos Athanasiou
collection DOAJ
description Reciprocal communication of the central and peripheral nervous systems is compromised during spinal cord injury due to neurotrauma of ascending and descending pathways. Changes in brain organization after spinal cord injury have been associated with differences in prognosis. Changes in functional connectivity may also serve as injury biomarkers. Most studies on functional connectivity have focused on chronic complete injury or resting-state condition. In our study, ten right-handed patients with incomplete spinal cord injury and ten age- and gender-matched healthy controls performed multiple visual motor imagery tasks of upper extremities and walking under high-resolution electroencephalography recording. Directed transfer function was used to study connectivity at the cortical source space between sensorimotor nodes. Chronic disruption of reciprocal communication in incomplete injury could result in permanent significant decrease of connectivity in a subset of the sensorimotor network, regardless of positive or negative neurological outcome. Cingulate motor areas consistently contributed the larger outflow (right) and received the higher inflow (left) among all nodes, across all motor imagery categories, in both groups. Injured subjects had higher outflow from left cingulate than healthy subjects and higher inflow in right cingulate than healthy subjects. Alpha networks were less dense, showing less integration and more segregation than beta networks. Spinal cord injury patients showed signs of increased local processing as adaptive mechanism. This trial is registered with NCT02443558.
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spelling doaj-art-a9a1d7518f0a47fd9f58506efddea8042025-08-20T02:20:41ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432018-01-01201810.1155/2018/93542079354207Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord InjuryAlkinoos Athanasiou0Nikos Terzopoulos1Niki Pandria2Ioannis Xygonakis3Nicolas Foroglou4Konstantinos Polyzoidis5Panagiotis D. Bamidis6Biomedical Electronics Robotics & Devices (BERD) Group, Lab of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, GreeceBiomedical Electronics Robotics & Devices (BERD) Group, Lab of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, GreeceBiomedical Electronics Robotics & Devices (BERD) Group, Lab of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, GreeceBiomedical Electronics Robotics & Devices (BERD) Group, Lab of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece1st Department of Neurosurgery, “AHEPA” University General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54636 Thessaloniki, Greece1st Department of Neurosurgery, “AHEPA” University General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54636 Thessaloniki, GreeceBiomedical Electronics Robotics & Devices (BERD) Group, Lab of Medical Physics, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), 54124 Thessaloniki, GreeceReciprocal communication of the central and peripheral nervous systems is compromised during spinal cord injury due to neurotrauma of ascending and descending pathways. Changes in brain organization after spinal cord injury have been associated with differences in prognosis. Changes in functional connectivity may also serve as injury biomarkers. Most studies on functional connectivity have focused on chronic complete injury or resting-state condition. In our study, ten right-handed patients with incomplete spinal cord injury and ten age- and gender-matched healthy controls performed multiple visual motor imagery tasks of upper extremities and walking under high-resolution electroencephalography recording. Directed transfer function was used to study connectivity at the cortical source space between sensorimotor nodes. Chronic disruption of reciprocal communication in incomplete injury could result in permanent significant decrease of connectivity in a subset of the sensorimotor network, regardless of positive or negative neurological outcome. Cingulate motor areas consistently contributed the larger outflow (right) and received the higher inflow (left) among all nodes, across all motor imagery categories, in both groups. Injured subjects had higher outflow from left cingulate than healthy subjects and higher inflow in right cingulate than healthy subjects. Alpha networks were less dense, showing less integration and more segregation than beta networks. Spinal cord injury patients showed signs of increased local processing as adaptive mechanism. This trial is registered with NCT02443558.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/9354207
spellingShingle Alkinoos Athanasiou
Nikos Terzopoulos
Niki Pandria
Ioannis Xygonakis
Nicolas Foroglou
Konstantinos Polyzoidis
Panagiotis D. Bamidis
Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
Neural Plasticity
title Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
title_full Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
title_fullStr Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
title_full_unstemmed Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
title_short Functional Brain Connectivity during Multiple Motor Imagery Tasks in Spinal Cord Injury
title_sort functional brain connectivity during multiple motor imagery tasks in spinal cord injury
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/9354207
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