FMRI and EEG Reactions to Hand Motor Tasks in Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Left-Hemispheric Sensitivity to Trauma

Ludmila Zhavoronkova,Svetlana Kuptsova,Alexander Smirnov,Igor Pronin,Olga Maksakova,Elena Sharova,Eugen Masherov,Sofia Moraresku,Galina Boldyreva

doi:10.4236/jbbs.2019.96020

Ludmila Zhavoronkova, Svetlana Kuptsova + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2019.96020

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Abstract

Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common forms of cerebral pathology in young people and disorders involve dysfunctions in cognitive and motor spheres. We would like to examine the structural and functional alterations of the brain in patients with mTBI while performing hand movements. Methods: Twenty healthy right-handed subjects (age 25.1 ± 3.9) and 10 patients (age 27.9 ± 7.3) with mTBI without hemiparesis participated in the study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG). FMRI and EEG reactions were analysed during right- and left-hand movements. Results: It was shown that fMRI reactive changes have a larger inter-individual variability of activation during left-hand movements in comparison with right-hand ones in healthy subjects. The TBI patients demonstrated an increase of a diffuse component of fMRI reactive changes compared to healthy people. A greater number of the brain structures was involved, mainly at the subcortical level, mostly in the left hemisphere during right-hand movement. EEG study demonstrated coherence changes for the slow (delta) frequency bands in the left hemisphere, while performing both hand movements. In healthy persons, EEG coherence changes were observed in the fast (alhpa2) frequency band predominantly in contralateral hemispheres, while performing hand movements. Conclusion: So, fMRI and EEG studies revealed the most expressed pathological reactive changes in the left hemisphere and the brain cortical structures during right-hand movements in patients after mTBI. These data allowed us to propose that the younger brain structures were the most sensitive to mTBI.

Highlights

Mild traumatic brain injury is one of the most common forms of cerebral pathology occurring in adolescence and young people [1] [2] [3]
Group analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in healthy persons is presented in Figure 1(A) and Figure 1(B)
An analysis of group mean fMRI responses to left-hand movement (Figure 1(B)) revealed only one main activation area in the sensorimotor area of the contralateral right hemisphere. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact, that individual fMRI responses while moving non-dominant left hand are more variable than those with right-hand movement

Summary

Introduction

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common forms of cerebral pathology occurring in adolescence and young people [1] [2] [3]. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common forms of cerebral pathology in young people and disorders involve dysfunctions in cognitive and motor spheres. The TBI patients demonstrated an increase of a diffuse component of fMRI reactive changes compared to healthy people. EEG study demonstrated coherence changes for the slow (delta) frequency bands in the left hemisphere, while performing both hand movements. Conclusion: So, fMRI and EEG studies revealed the most expressed pathological reactive changes in the left hemisphere and the brain cortical structures during right-hand movements in patients after mTBI. These data allowed us to propose that the younger brain structures were the most sensitive to mTBI

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