title: Exploring the physiological correlates of chronic mild traumatic brain injury symptoms.
abstract: We report on the results of a multimodal imaging study involving behavioral assessments, evoked and resting-state BOLD fMRI, and DTI in chronic mTBI subjects. We found that larger task-evoked BOLD activity in the MT+/LO region in extra-striate visual cortex correlated with mTBI and PTSD symptoms, especially light sensitivity. Moreover, higher FA values near the left optic radiation (OR) were associated with both light sensitivity and higher BOLD activity in the MT+/LO region. The MT+/LO region was localized as a region of abnormal functional connectivity with central white matter regions previously found to have abnormal physiological signals during visual eye movement tracking (Astafiev et al., 2015). We conclude that mTBI symptoms and light sensitivity may be related to excessive responsiveness of visual cortex to sensory stimuli. This abnormal sensitivity may be related to chronic remodeling of white matter visual pathways acutely injured.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8225, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: astafiev@npg.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Serguei V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Astafiev
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8225, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: zinnk@npg.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Kristina L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Zinn
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8225, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: gordon@npg.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Gordon L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Shulman
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8225, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Electronic address: mau@npg.wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Corbetta
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D038223:Post-Concussion Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Behavioral assessments; Diffusion tensor imaging; MRI; Traumatic brain injury