Reorganization of cerebro-cerebellar circuit in patients with left hemispheric gliomas involving language network: A combined structural and resting-state functional MRI study

Nan Zhang, Mingrui Xia, Tianming Qiu, Xindi Wang, Ching po Lin, Qihao Guo, Junfeng Lu, Qizhu Wu, Dongxiao Zhuang, Zhengda Yu, Fangyuan Gong, N. U. Farrukh Hameed, Yong He*, Jinsong Wu, Liangfu Zhou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

The role of cerebellum and cerebro-cerebellar system in neural plasticity induced by cerebral gliomas involving language network has long been ignored. Moreover, whether or not the process of reorganization is different in glioma patients with different growth kinetics remains largely unknown. To address this issue, we utilized preoperative structural and resting-state functional MRI data of 78 patients with left cerebral gliomas involving language network areas, including 46 patients with low-grade glioma (LGG, WHO grade II), 32 with high-grade glioma (HGG, WHO grade III/IV), and 44 healthy controls. Spontaneous brain activity, resting-state functional connectivity and gray matter volume alterations of the cerebellum were examined. We found that both LGG and HGG patients exhibited bidirectional alteration of brain activity in language-related cerebellar areas. Brain activity in areas with increased alteration was significantly correlated with the language and MMSE scores. Structurally, LGG patients exhibited greater gray matter volume in regions with increased brain activity, suggesting a structure–function coupled alteration in cerebellum. Furthermore, we observed that cerebellar regions with decreased brain activity exhibited increased functional connectivity with contralesional cerebro-cerebellar system in LGG patients. Together, our findings provide empirical evidence for a vital role of cerebellum and cerebro-cerebellar circuit in neural plasticity following lesional damage to cerebral language network. Moreover, we highlight the possible different reorganizational mechanisms of brain functional connectivity underlying different levels of behavioral impairments in LGG and HGG patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4802-4819
Number of pages18
JournalHuman Brain Mapping
Volume39
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2018

Keywords

  • cerebellum
  • glioma
  • language
  • plasticity
  • resting-state fMRI
  • structural MRI

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