title: Recovery of resting brain connectivity ensuing mild traumatic brain injury.
abstract: Brains reveal amplified plasticity as they recover from an injury. We aimed to define time dependent plasticity changes in patients recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Twenty-five subjects with mild head injury were longitudinally evaluated within 36 h, 3 and 6 months using resting state functional connectivity (RSFC). Region of interest (ROI) based connectivity differences over time within the patient group and in comparison with a healthy control group were analyzed at p < 0.005. We found 33 distinct ROI pairs that revealed significant changes in their connectivity strength with time. Within 3 months, the majority of the ROI pairs had decreased connectivity in mTBI population, which increased and became comparable to healthy controls at 6 months. Within this diffuse decreased connectivity in the first 3 months, there were also few regions with increased connections. This hyper connectivity involved the salience network and default mode network within 36 h, and lingual, inferior frontal and fronto-parietal networks at 3 months. Our findings in a fairly homogenous group of patients with mTBI evaluated during the 6 month window of recovery defines time varying brain connectivity changes as the brain recovers from an injury. A majority of these changes were seen in the frontal and parietal lobes between 3 and 6 months after injury. Hyper connectivity of several networks supported normal recovery in the first 6 months and it remains to be seen in future studies whether this can predict an early and efficient recovery of brain function.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Brain Imaging Facility, Cognitive Neuroscience Centre, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India ; Department of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Rose D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Bharath
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Ashok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Munivenkatappa
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Suril
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gohel
authors.affiliation: Advanced Brain Imaging Facility, Cognitive Neuroscience Centre, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India ; Department of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Rajanikant
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Panda
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroimaging and Interventional Radiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Jitender
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saini
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Jamuna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rajeswaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Dhaval
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Indira D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Bhagavatula
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Bharat B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Biswal
keywords: brain plasticity; hyper connectivity; longitudinal study; mild traumatic brain injury; resting state functional connectivity; time varying changes