Neural Correlates of Motor Recovery Measured by SPECT at Six Months After Basal Ganglia Stroke

The amount of knowledge on human consciousness has created a multitude of viewpoints and it is difficult to compare and synthesize all the recent scientific perspectives. Indeed, there are many definitions of consciousness and multiple approaches to study the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). Therefore, the main aim of this article is to collect data on the various theories of consciousness published between 2007–2017 and to synthesize them to provide a general overview of this topic. To describe each theory, we developed a thematic grid called the dimensional model, which qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes how each article, related to one specific theory, debates/analyzes a specific issue. Among the 1130 articles assessed, 85 full texts were included in the prefinal step. Finally, this scoping review analyzed 68 articles that described 29 theories of consciousness. We found heterogeneous perspectives in the theories analyzed. Those with the highest grade of variability are as follows: subjectivity, NCC, and the consciousness/cognitive function. Among sub-cortical structures, thalamus, basal ganglia, and the hippocampus were the most indicated, whereas the cingulate, prefrontal, and temporal areas were the most reported for cortical ones also including the thalamo-cortical system. Moreover, we found several definitions of consciousness and 21 new sub-classifications.

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Explicit motor sequence learning after stroke: a neuropsychological study

Experimental Brain Research ◽

10.1007/s00221-021-06141-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Cristina Russo ◽

Laura Veronelli ◽

Carlotta Casati ◽

Alessia Monti ◽

Laura Perucca ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Upper Limb ◽

Motor Recovery ◽

Finger Tapping ◽

Control Group ◽

Stroke Severity ◽

Motor Sequence ◽

Stroke Patients ◽

Motor Practice

AbstractMotor learning interacts with and shapes experience-dependent cerebral plasticity. In stroke patients with paresis of the upper limb, motor recovery was proposed to reflect a process of re-learning the lost/impaired skill, which interacts with rehabilitation. However, to what extent stroke patients with hemiparesis may retain the ability of learning with their affected limb remains an unsolved issue, that was addressed by this study. Nineteen patients, with a cerebrovascular lesion affecting the right or the left hemisphere, underwent an explicit motor learning task (finger tapping task, FTT), which was performed with the paretic hand. Eighteen age-matched healthy participants served as controls. Motor performance was assessed during the learning phase (i.e., online learning), as well as immediately at the end of practice, and after 90 min and 24 h (i.e., retention). Results show that overall, as compared to the control group, stroke patients, regardless of the side (left/right) of the hemispheric lesion, do not show a reliable practice-dependent improvement; consequently, no retention could be detected in the long-term (after 90 min and 24 h). The motor learning impairment was associated with subcortical damage, predominantly affecting the basal ganglia; conversely, it was not associated with age, time elapsed from stroke, severity of upper-limb motor and sensory deficits, and the general neurological condition. This evidence expands our understanding regarding the potential of post-stroke motor recovery through motor practice, suggesting a potential key role of basal ganglia, not only in implicit motor learning as previously pointed out, but also in explicit finger tapping motor tasks.

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Neural correlates of subsequent memory-related gaze reinstatement

10.1101/2021.02.23.432536 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jordana S. Wynn ◽

Zhong-Xu Liu ◽

Jennifer D. Ryan

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Basal Ganglia ◽

Recognition Memory ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Memory Task ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Oculomotor Control ◽

Related Activity ◽

Pattern Similarity ◽

Occipital Pole

AbstractMounting evidence linking gaze reinstatement- the recapitulation of encoding-related gaze patterns during retrieval- to behavioral measures of memory suggests that eye movements play an important role in mnemonic processing. Yet, the nature of the gaze scanpath, including its informational content and neural correlates, has remained in question. In the present study, we examined eye movement and neural data from a recognition memory task to further elucidate the behavioral and neural bases of functional gaze reinstatement. Consistent with previous work, gaze reinstatement during retrieval of freely-viewed scene images was greater than chance and predictive of recognition memory performance. Gaze reinstatement was also associated with viewing of informationally salient image regions at encoding, suggesting that scanpaths may encode and contain high-level scene content. At the brain level, gaze reinstatement was predicted by encoding-related activity in the occipital pole and basal ganglia, neural regions associated with visual processing and oculomotor control. Finally, cross-voxel brain pattern similarity analysis revealed overlapping subsequent memory and subsequent gaze reinstatement modulation effects in the parahippocampal place area and hippocampus, in addition to the occipital pole and basal ganglia. Together, these findings suggest that encoding-related activity in brain regions associated with scene processing, oculomotor control, and memory supports the formation, and subsequent recapitulation, of functional scanpaths. More broadly, these findings lend support to Scanpath Theory’s assertion that eye movements both encode, and are themselves embedded in, mnemonic representations.

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Cognitive and Affective Empathy in Huntington’s Disease

Journal of Huntington s Disease ◽

10.3233/jhd-210469 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Arnau Puig-Davi ◽

Saul Martinez-Horta ◽

Frederic Sampedro ◽

Andrea Horta-Barba ◽

Jesus Perez-Perez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Huntington's Disease ◽

Huntington’S Disease ◽

Cognitive Deficits ◽

Perspective Taking ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Affective Empathy ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Empathy Deficits ◽

Almost All

Background: Empathy is a multidimensional construct and a key component of social cognition. In Huntington’s disease (HD), little is known regarding the phenomenology and the neural correlates of cognitive and affective empathy, and regarding how empathic deficits interact with other behavioral and cognitive manifestations. Objective: To explore the cognitive and affective empathy disturbances and related behavioral and neural correlates in HD. Methods: Clinical and sociodemographic data were obtained from 36 healthy controls (HC) and 54 gene-mutation carriers (17 premanifest and 37 early-manifest HD). The Test of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (TECA) was used to characterize cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE), and to explore their associations with grey matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness (Cth). Results: Compared to HC, premanifest participants performed significantly worse in perspective taking (CE) and empathic distress (AE). In symptomatic participants, scores were significantly lower in almost all the TECA subscales. Several empathy subscales were associated with the severity of apathy, irritability, and cognitive deficits. CE was associated with GMV in thalamic, temporal, and occipital regions, and with Cth in parietal and temporal areas. AE was associated with GMV in the basal ganglia, limbic, occipital, and medial orbitofrontal regions, and with Cth in parieto-occipital areas. Conclusion: Cognitive and affective empathy deficits are detectable early, are more severe in symptomatic participants, and involve the disruption of several fronto-temporal, parieto-occipital, basal ganglia, and limbic regions. These deficits are associated with disease severity and contribute to several behavioral symptoms, facilitating the presentation of maladaptive patterns of social interaction.

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Prediction of Motor Recovery in Patients with Basal Ganglia Hemorrhage Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm9051304 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 1304

Author(s):

Yu-Sun Min ◽

Kyung Eun Jang ◽

Eunhee Park ◽

Ae-Ryoung Kim ◽

Min-Gu Kang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Diffusion Tensor Imaging ◽

Basal Ganglia ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Motor Recovery ◽

Recovery Stage ◽

Poor Outcome Group ◽

Outcome Group ◽

Putaminal Hemorrhage ◽

Basal Ganglia Hemorrhage

Predicting prognosis in patients with basal ganglia hemorrhage is difficult. This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of diffusion tensor imaging in predicting motor outcome after basal ganglia hemorrhage. A total of 12 patients with putaminal hemorrhage were included in the study (aged 50 ± 12 years), 8 patients were male (aged 46 ± 11 years) and 4 were female (aged 59 ± 9 years). We performed diffusion tensor imaging and measured clinical outcome at baseline (pre) and 3 weeks (post1), 3 months (post2), and 6 months (post3) after the initial treatment. In the affected side of the brain, the mean fractional anisotropy (FA) value on pons was significantly higher in the good outcome group than that in the poor outcome group at pre (p = 0.004) and post3 (p = 0.025). Pearson correlation analysis showed that mean FA value at pre significantly correlated with the sum of the Brunnstrom motor recovery stage scores at post3 (R = 0.8, p = 0.002). Change in the FA ratio on diffusion tractography can predict motor recovery after hemorrhagic stroke.

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Patterns of motor recovery and structural neuroplasticity after basal ganglia infarcts

Neurology ◽

10.1212/wnl.0000000000010149 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 95 (9) ◽

pp. e1174-e1187

Author(s):

Hesheng Liu ◽

Xiaolong Peng ◽

Louisa Dahmani ◽

Hongfeng Wang ◽

Miao Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

A Priori ◽

Treatment Strategies ◽

Motor Recovery ◽

Cortical Reorganization ◽

Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽

Motor Network ◽

Healthy Control ◽

Cerebral Reorganization

ObjectiveTo elucidate the timeframe and spatial patterns of cortical reorganization after different stroke-induced basal ganglia lesions, we measured cortical thickness at 5 time points over a 6-month period. We hypothesized that cortical reorganization would occur very early and that, along with motor recovery, it would vary based on the stroke lesion site.MethodsThirty-three patients with unilateral basal ganglia stroke and 23 healthy control participants underwent MRI scanning and behavioral testing. To further decrease heterogeneity, we split patients into 2 groups according to whether or not the lesions mainly affect the striatal motor network as defined by resting-state functional connectivity. A priori measures included cortical thickness and motor outcome, as assessed with the Fugl-Meyer scale.ResultsWithin 14 days poststroke, cortical thickness already increased in widespread brain areas (p = 0.001), mostly in the frontal and temporal cortices rather than in the motor cortex. Critically, the 2 groups differed in the severity of motor symptoms (p = 0.03) as well as in the cerebral reorganization they exhibited over a period of 6 months (Dice overlap index = 0.16). Specifically, the frontal and temporal regions demonstrating cortical thickening showed minimal overlap between these 2 groups, indicating different patterns of reorganization.ConclusionsOur findings underline the importance of assessing patients early and of considering individual differences, as patterns of cortical reorganization differ substantially depending on the precise location of damage and occur very soon after stroke. A better understanding of the macrostructural brain changes following stroke and their relationship with recovery may inform individualized treatment strategies.

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P25.23 A pilot study to investigate the neural correlates of robot-mediated motor recovery following a stroke

Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s1388-2457(11)60642-1 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 122 ◽

pp. S178

Author(s):

F. Sergi ◽

J. Schaechter ◽

B. Groisser ◽

A. Rykmann ◽

B.T. Volpe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Motor Recovery

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Behavioral and neural correlates of speech motor sequence learning in stuttering and neurotypical speakers: an fMRI investigation

10.31219/osf.io/62pty ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Masapollo

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Motor Learning ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽

Motor Planning ◽

Theoretical Models ◽

Neural Correlates ◽

Motor Sequence ◽

Motor Practice ◽

Speech Motor

Stuttering is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired execution of articulatory movements needed for fluent speech production. Existing theoretical models propose that these deficits reflect a malfunction in the cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamocortical (cortico-BG) loop that is responsible for selecting and initiating speech motor programs. However, the cortico-BG loop has also been hypothesized to play a role in speech motor learning. To distinguish motor execution impairments from motor learning impairments in stuttering, the authors examined the behavioral and neural correlates of learning to produce novel phoneme sequences in adults who stutter (AWS) and neurotypical controls. Participants intensively practiced producing pseudowords containing non-native consonant clusters over two days. Results showed that, behaviorally, both AWS and controls produced the words with increased speed and accuracy following motor practice, and the rate of improvement was comparable for the two groups. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors compared brain activity during articulation of the practiced words and a set of novel pseudowords (matched in phonetic complexity). FMRI analyses revealed no differences between AWS and controls in cortical or subcortical regions; both groups showed comparable increases in activation in left-lateralized brain areas implicated in phonological working memory and speech motor planning during production of the novel sequences compared to the practiced sequences. Moreover, activation in left-lateralized basal ganglia sites was negatively correlated with stuttering severity in AWS. Collectively, these findings indicate that AWS exhibit no deficit in learning novel speech sequences but do show impaired execution of these sequences prior to and after learning.

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Longitudinal Assessment of Motor Recovery of Contralateral Hand after Basal Ganglia Infarction Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2016/7403795 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yue Fu ◽

Quan Zhang ◽

Chunshui Yu ◽

Jing Zhang ◽

Ning Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Basal Ganglia ◽

Motor Function ◽

Acute Phase ◽

Block Design ◽

Chronic Phase ◽

Motor Recovery ◽

Activation Domain ◽

Functional Rehabilitation ◽

Time Points ◽

Recovery Of Motor Function

We used functional fMRI to study the brain activation during active finger movements at different time points during the recovery phase following basal ganglia infarction. Four hemiplegic patients with basal ganglia infarction were serially evaluated at different time points spanning the acute and chronic phase using fMRI. To evaluate motor recovery, the patients were asked to perform functional tasks arranged in a block design manner with their hand. On follow-up (chronic phase), three patients achieved significant recovery of motor function of affected limbs. Activation of bilateral sensorimotor cortex (SMC) was observed in two of these patients, while activation of cerebellum was observed in all patients. No remarkable recovery of motor function was noted in one patient with left basal ganglia infarction. In this patient, the activation domain was located in SMC of both sides in acute phase and in ipsilateral SMC in chronic phase. Contralateral SMC appears to be involved in the functional rehabilitation following basal ganglia infarction. The cerebellum may act as an intermediary during functional recovery following basal ganglia infarction. The activation domain associated with active finger movement may be bilateral in acute phase; one patient was ipsilateral in the chronic stage.

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