Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Relationship between functional connectivity and motor function assessment in stroke patients with hemiplegia: a resting-state functional MRI study

  • Functional Neuroradiology
  • Published:
Neuroradiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to examine the brain mechanisms of stroke patients with hemiplegia, but the relationship between functional connectivity (FC) and treatment-induced motor function recovery has not yet been fully investigated. This study aimed to identify the brain FC changes in stroke patients and study the relationship between FC and motor function assessment using the resting-state fMRI.

Methods

Seventeen stroke patients with hemiplegia and fifteen healthy control subjects (HCSs) were recruited in this study. We compared the FC between the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1) and the whole brain of the patients with the FC of the HCSs and studied the FC changes in the patients before and after conventional rehabilitation and motor imagery therapy. Additionally, correlations between the FC change and motor function of the patients were studied.

Results

Compared to the HCSs, the FC in the patient group was significantly increased between the ipsilesional M1 and the ipsilesional inferior parietal cortex, frontal gyrus, supplementary motor area (SMA), and contralesional angular and decreased between the ipsilesional M1 and bilateral M1. After the treatment, the FC between the ipsilesional M1 and contralesional M1 increased while the FC between the ipsilesional M1 and ipsilesional SMA and paracentral lobule decreased. A statistically significant correlation was found between the FC change in the bilateral M1 and the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) score change.

Conclusion

Our results revealed an abnormal motor network after stroke and suggested that the FC could serve as a biomarker of motor function recovery in stroke patients with hemiplegia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gorelick PB, Scuteri A, Black SE (2011) Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia: a statement for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Stroke 42(9):2672–2713

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Middleton FA, Strick PL (2000) Basal ganglia and cerebellar loops: motor and cognitive circuits. Brain Res Brain Res Rev 31:236–250

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Dum RP, Strick PL (2002) Motor areas in the frontal lobe of the primate. Physiol Behav 77:677–682

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Ward NS, Newton JM, Swayne OB, Lee L, Thompson AJ, Greenwood RJ, Rothwell JC, Frackowiak RS (2006) Motor system activation after subcortical stroke depends on corticospinal system integrity. Brain 129(Pt 3):809–819

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Stinear CM, Barber PA, Smale PR, Coxon JP, Fleming MK, Byblow WD (2007) Functional potential in chronic stroke patients depends on corticospinal tract integrity. Brain 130:170–180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Rehme AK, Eickhoff SB, Rottschy C, Fink GR, Grefkes C (2012) Activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of motor-related neural activity after stroke. Neuroimage 59(3):2771–2782

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Biswal B, Yetkin FZ, Haughton VM, Hyde JS (1995) Functional connectivity in the motor cortex of resting human brain using echo-planar MRI. Magn Reson Med 34:537–541

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Carter AR, Astafiev SV, Lang CE, Connor LT, Rengachary J, Strube MJ, Pope DL, Shulman GL, Corbetta M (2010) Resting interhemispheric functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity predicts performance after stroke. Ann Neurol 67:365–375

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang L, Yu C, Chen H, Qin W, He Y, Fan F, Zhang Y, Wang M, Li K, Zang Y, Woodward TS, Zhu C (2010) Dynamic functional reorganization of the motor execution network after stroke. Brain 133:1224–1238

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Park CH, Chang WH, Ohn SH, Kim ST, Bang OY, Pascual-Leone A, Kim YH (2011) Longitudinal changes of resting-state functional connectivity during motor recovery after stroke. Stroke 42:1357–1362

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Grefkes C, Wang LENDA, Dafotakis M, Eickhoff SB, Fink GR (2010) Modulating cortical connectivity in stroke patients by rTMS assessed with fMRI and dynamic causal modelling. Neuroimage 50:233–242

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Page SJ, Levine P, Leonard AC (2005) Effects of mental practice on affected limb use and function in chronic stroke. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 86:399–402

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Yoo E, Park E, Chung B (2001) Mental practice effect on line-tracing accuracy in persons with hemiparetic stroke: a preliminary study. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 82(9):1213–1218

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Crosbie JH, McDonough SM, Gilmore DH (2004) The adjunctive role of mental practice in the rehabilitation of the upper limb after hemiplegic stroke: a pilot study. Clin Rehabil 18:60–68

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Jackson PL, Lafleur MF, Malouin F, Richards C, Doyon J (2001) Potential role of mental practice using motor imagery in neurologic rehabilitation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 83:1133–1141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Fugl-Meyer AR, Jaasko L, Leyman I, Olsson S, Steglind S (1975) The poststroke hemiplegic patient. 1. A method for evaluation of physical performance. Scand J Rehabil Med 7:13–31

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Oldfield R (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9:97–113

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Chao-Gan Y, Yu-Feng Z (2010) DPARSF: a MATLAB toolbox for “pipeline” data analysis of resting-state fMRI. Front Syst Neurosci 4:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  19. Wang L, Qiu M, Liu C, Yan R, Yang J, Zhang J, Zhang Y, Sang L, Zheng X (2014) Age-specific activation of cerebral areas in motor imagery—a fMRI study. Neuroradiology 56(4):339–348

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Penfield W, Welch K (1951) The supplementary motor area of the cerebral cortex: a clinical and experimental study. Am Med Assoc Arch Neurol Psychiatr 66(3):289–317

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Serrien DJ, Strens LH, Oliveiero A, Brown P (2002) Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the supplementary motor area (SMA) degrades bimanual movement control in humans. Neurosci Lett 328:89–92

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Puh U, Vovk A, Sevsek F, Suput D (2007) Increased cognitive load during simple and complex motor tasks in acute stage after stroke. Int J Psychophysiol 63:173–180

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Zimmermann-Schlatter A, Schuster C, Puhan MA, Siekierka E, Steurer J (2008) Efficacy of motor imagery in post-stroke rehabilitation: a systematic review. J Neuroeng Rehabil 14(5):8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Barclay-Goddard RE, Stevenson TJ, Poluha W, Thalman L (2011) Mental practice for treating upper extremity deficits in individuals with hemiparesis after stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 11(5):CD005950

    Google Scholar 

  25. Nair VA, Young BM, La C, Reiter P, Nadkarni TN, Song J, Vergun S, Addepally NS, Mylavarapu K, Swartz JL, Jensen MB, Chacon MR, Sattin JA, Prabhakaran V (2015) Functional connectivity changes in the language network during stroke recovery. Ann Clin Transl Neurol 2(2):185–195

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Yang S, Jiang C, Ye H, Tao J, Huang J, Gao Y, Lin Z, Chen L (2014) Effect of integrated cognitive therapy on hippocampal functional connectivity patterns in stroke patients with cognitive dysfunction: a resting-state FMRI study. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2014:962304

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81171866), the National Key Basic Research Program of China (No.2014CB541602) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, College of Biomedical Engineering, Third Military Medical University, 30 Gaotanyan Road, Chongqing, 40038, China

    Ye Zhang, Li Wang, Jingna Zhang, Linqiong Sang, Pengyue Li & Mingguo Qiu

  2. Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, 30 Gaotanyan Road, Chongqing, 400038, China

    Jun Yang & Jian Wang

  3. Department of Rehabilitation, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Hongliang Liu & Rubing Yan

Authors
  1. Ye Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hongliang Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Li Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jun Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Rubing Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jingna Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Linqiong Sang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Pengyue Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Jian Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Mingguo Qiu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jian Wang or Mingguo Qiu.

Ethics declarations

We declare that all human studies have been approved by the Third Military Medical University Ethics Committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Wang, L. et al. Relationship between functional connectivity and motor function assessment in stroke patients with hemiplegia: a resting-state functional MRI study. Neuroradiology 58, 503–511 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1646-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1646-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation