Abstract
Functional disconnectivity during the resting state has been observed in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients during the acute stage. However, it remains largely unknown whether the abnormalities are related to specific frequency bands of the low-frequency oscillations (LFO). Here, we used the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) to examine the amplitudes of LFO in different frequency bands (slow-5: 0.01–0.027 Hz; slow-4: 0.027–0.073 Hz; and typical: 0.01–0.08 Hz) in patients with acute mTBI. A total of 24 acute mTBI patients and 24 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls participated in this study. In the typical band, acute mTBI patients showed lower standardized ALFF in the right middle frontal gyrus and higher standardized ALFF in the right lingual/fusiform gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus. Further analyses showed that the difference between groups was concentrated in a narrower (slow-4) frequency band. In the slow-5 band, mTBI patients only exhibited higher standardized ALFF in the occipital areas. No significant correlation between the mini-mental state examination score and the standardized ALFF value was found in any brain region in the three frequency bands. Finally, no significant interaction between frequency bands and groups was found in any brain region. We concluded that the abnormality of spontaneous brain activity in acute mTBI patients existed in the frontal lobe as well as in distributed brain regions associated with integrative, sensory, and emotional roles, and the abnormal spontaneous neuronal activity in different brain regions could be better detected by the slow-4 band. These findings might contribute to a better understanding of local neural psychopathology of acute mTBI. Future studies should take the frequency bands into account when measuring intrinsic brain activity of mTBI patients.
Highlights
Mild traumatic brain injury is a substantial neurological disorder that comprises approximately 80% of the 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries suffered each year in the United States (Nathan et al, 2015)
There were no significant differences in age and years of education between the acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) patients and the healthy controls (HC)
Acute mTBI patients showed significantly decreased mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score compared with HC (p = 0.003)
Summary
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a substantial neurological disorder that comprises approximately 80% of the 1.5 million traumatic brain injuries suffered each year in the United States (Nathan et al, 2015). It is characterized by subtle cognitive deficits within the first weeks after injury and typically resolves within 3–6 months post-injury (Walker and Tesco, 2013; Mayer et al, 2014, 2015). Because it is at the acute stage that most mTBI patients report neurocognitive problems, detection of the neural basis of brain injury at the acute stage will be most likely to shed light on the link between early functional abnormalities and the possibility of protracted symptoms
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