title: Subcortical motor plasticity in patients with sporadic ALS: An fMRI study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To address the potential contribution of subcortical brain regions in the functional reorganization of the motor system in patients with sporadic ALS (sALS) and to investigate whether functional changes in brain activity are different in sALS patients with predominant upper motor neuron (UMN) or lower motor neuron (LMN) dysfunction.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 16 patients with sALS and 13 healthy controls, using BOLD-fMRI, while they performed a simple visually paced motor task. Seven patients had definite clinical UMN signs while nine patients had prevalent clinical and electrophysiological LMN involvement. fMRI data were analyzed with Brain Voyager QX.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Task-related functional changes were identified in motor cortical regions in both patients and healthy controls. Direct group comparisons revealed relatively decreased BOLD fMRI responses in left sensorimotor cortex, lateral premotor area, supplementary motor area and right posterior parietal cortex (p < 0.05 corrected) and relatively increased responses in the left anterior putamen (p < 0.001 uncorrected) in sALS patients. Additional analyses between the two patients subgroups demonstrated significant BOLD fMRI response differences in the anterior cingulate cortex and right caudate nucleus (p < 0.001 uncorrected) with more robust activation of these areas in patients with greater UMN burden. Importantly, there were no significant differences in performance of the motor task between sALS patients and controls as well as between sALS patient subgroups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data demonstrate a different BOLD fMRI pattern between our sALS patients and healthy controls even during simple motor behavior. Furthermore, patients with sALS and greater UMN involvement show a different reorganization of the motor system compared to sALS patients with greater LMN dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Second Division of Neurology, Second University of Naples, Piazza Miraglia, 2, Naples 80131, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tessitore
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Monsurrò
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Graziano
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Panza
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Migliaccio
authors.forename: F L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Conforti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morrone
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quattrone
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Salle
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tedeschi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology