Abstract
Background: Complete or incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) results in varying degree of motor, sensory and autonomic impairment. Long-lasting, often irreversible disability results from disconnection of efferent and afferent pathways. How does this disconnection affect brain function is not so clear. Changes in brain organization and structure have been associated with SCI and have been extensively studied and reviewed. Yet, our knowledge regarding brain connectivity changes following SCI is overall lacking.Methods: In this study we conduct a systematic review of articles regarding investigations of functional brain networks following SCI, searching on PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect according to PRISMA-P 2015 statement standards.Results: Changes in brain connectivity have been shown even during the early stages of the chronic condition and correlate with the degree of neurological impairment. Connectivity changes appear as dynamic post-injury procedures. Sensorimotor networks of patients and healthy individuals share similar patterns but new functional interactions have been identified as unique to SCI networks.Conclusions: Large-scale, multi-modal, longitudinal studies on SCI patients are needed to understand how brain network reorganization is established and progresses through the course of the condition. The expected insight holds clinical relevance in preventing maladaptive plasticity after SCI through individualized neurorehabilitation, as well as the design of connectivity-based brain-computer interfaces and assistive technologies for SCI patients.
Highlights
RationaleComplete or incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) results in varying degree of motor, sensory and autonomic impairment and long-lasting, often irreversible disability (Anderson et al, 2011)
In this study we conduct a systematic review of articles regarding investigations of functional brain networks following SCI, searching on PubMed, Scopus and ScienceDirect according to PRISMA-P 2015 statement standards
While anatomical white matter connections of cortical sensorimotor areas and subcortical nodes or connections between homologous sensorimotor cortical areas, that are effected through the corpus callosum directly (Zarei et al, 2006) or indirectly (Meyer et al, 1998), are not primarily damaged, changes in brain organization and structure have been associated with SCI and have been extensively studied and reviewed (Freund et al, 2013; Nardone et al, 2013)
Summary
RationaleComplete or incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) results in varying degree of motor, sensory and autonomic impairment and long-lasting, often irreversible disability (Anderson et al, 2011). While anatomical white matter connections of cortical sensorimotor areas and subcortical nodes or connections between homologous sensorimotor cortical areas, that are effected through the corpus callosum directly (Zarei et al, 2006) or indirectly (Meyer et al, 1998), are not primarily damaged, changes in brain organization and structure have been associated with SCI and have been extensively studied and reviewed (Freund et al, 2013; Nardone et al, 2013) Some of these reported alterations can be considered structural changes, including atrophy of the afferent nerve pathways, microstructural changes of efferent axons and regions of the sensorimotor cortex (Freund et al, 2013; Nardone et al, 2013). Our knowledge regarding brain connectivity changes following SCI is overall lacking
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