Abstract
The cerebellum contains several cognitive-related subregions that are involved in different functional networks. The cerebellar crus II is correlated with the frontoparietal network (FPN), whereas the cerebellar IX is associated with the default-mode network (DMN). These two networks are anticorrelated and cooperatively implicated in cognitive control, which may facilitate the motor recovery in stroke patients. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) changes in 25 subcortical ischemic stroke patients with well-recovered global motor function. Consistent with previous studies, the crus II was correlated with the FPN, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex, and the cerebellar IX was correlated with the DMN, including the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/Pcu), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), DLPFC, lateral parietal cortices, and anterior temporal cortices. No significantly increased rsFCs of these cerebellar subregions were found in stroke patients, suggesting that the rsFCs of the cognitive-related cerebellar subregions are not the critical factors contributing to the recovery of motor function in stroke patients. The finding of the disconnection in the cerebellar-related cognitive control networks may possibly explain the deficits in cognitive control function even in stroke patients with well-recovered global motor function.
Highlights
Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of motor disability in adults, while most patients experience a certain degree of recovery of motor function
We found that the cerebellar crus II was mainly correlated with the brain regions of the contralateral frontoparietal network (FPN), including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex, which is well consistent with previous findings on the FPN [24, 25, 4.2
FPN and the cerebellar lobule IX exhibited decreased resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) with brain regions of the default-mode network (DMN). These findings suggest that the decreased rsFCs of the cerebellar crus II and the cerebellar lobule IX are the hallmark in these stroke patients with well-recovered global motor function
Summary
Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of motor disability in adults, while most patients experience a certain degree of recovery of motor function. The contralesional cerebellum is a part of the affected motor network and has reciprocal connections with the ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex. The affected cerebellum has been shown to exhibit greater activation during performing a motor [13] or a tactile exploration task [14] with the affected hand. This activation decreased gradually and this was correlated with functional recovery [15]. In a longitudinal analysis of the executive motor network, the betweenness centrality (a measure evaluating the importance of a node in brain network) of the affected cerebellum was negatively correlated with the recovery of motor function [16]
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