title: Connectome-scale assessment of structural and functional connectivity in mild traumatic brain injury at the acute stage.
abstract: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) accounts for over one million emergency visits each year in the United States. The large-scale structural and functional network connectivity changes of mTBI are still unknown. This study was designed to determine the connectome-scale brain network connectivity changes in mTBI at both structural and functional levels. 40 mTBI patients at the acute stage and 50 healthy controls were recruited. A novel approach called Dense Individualized and Common Connectivity-based Cortical Landmarks (DICCCOLs) was applied for connectome-scale analysis of both diffusion tensor imaging and resting state functional MRI data. Among 358 networks identified on DICCCOL analysis, 41 networks were identified as structurally discrepant between patient and control groups. The involved major white matter tracts include the corpus callosum, and superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi. Functional connectivity analysis identified 60 connectomic signatures that differentiate patients from controls with 93.75% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Analysis of functional domains showed decreased intra-network connectivity within the emotion network and among emotion-cognition interactions, and increased interactions among action-emotion and action-cognition as well as within perception networks. This work suggests that mTBI may result in changes of structural and functional connectivity on a connectome scale at the acute stage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iraji
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Hanbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wiseman
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA; School of Automation, Northwestern Polytechnic University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
authors.forename: Tuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Welch
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Neil
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kulek
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Syed Imran
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Ayaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA; First Affiliated Hospital, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Conor
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA; Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: E Mark
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Haacke
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Tianming
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA; Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Zhifeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kou
keywords: Brain connectivity; Brain connectome; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neuroimaging; Traumatic brain injury