title: Increased inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity in acute lacunar stroke patients with aphasia.
abstract: Aphasia is a devastating neurological condition affecting a person's ability to communicate and reintegrate into the society. It may occur in 20% or more of patients after stroke. The recovery of language function is accompanied by brain reorganization, and identifying the inter-hemispheric interaction post-stroke will conduce to more targeted treatments. Previous studies suggested that robust homotopic resting-state functional connectivity is a key characteristic of the brain's intrinsic functional architecture, and communication between the left and right cerebral hemispheres is important for language processing. In this study, voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) was used to examine the inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) differences between 37 patients with acute lacunar stroke in the left hemisphere and 28 healthy controls. Besides, correlation analyses were carried out to investigate the relationship between VMHC values of brain regions showing abnormal inter-hemispheric RSFC and clinical variables [i.e., aphasia quotient (AQ) scores, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Mini-Mental State Examination of patients]. Compared with healthy controls, patients showed significantly increased VMHC in the pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior part of the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and lingual gyrus. No brain region showed decreased VMHC in the patient group than in the healthy control group. The AQ scores were negatively correlated with VMHC values in the STG. NIHSS scores were positively correlated with VMHC values in the lingual gyrus. We hope these results could shed new insights into the pathology of aphasia in patients with acute lacunar stroke.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Haiqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Panpan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Blood Purification, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China. hh87789588@163.com.
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, No. 215 Heping West Road, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People's Republic of China. doctormartin1973@icloud.com.
authors.forename: Yifei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012146:Rest; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D059409:Stroke, Lacunar / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Aphasia; Lacunar stroke; Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging; Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity