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Cognitive impairment after traumatic brain injury: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using the Stroop task

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a key role in cognition, motor function, and emotion processing. However, little is known about how traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects the ACC system. Our purpose was to compare, by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, the patterns of cortical activation in patients with cognitive impairment after TBI and those of normal subjects. Cortical activation maps of 11 right-handed healthy control subjects and five TBI patients with cognitive impairment were recorded in response to a Stroop task during a block-designed fMRI experiment. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) was used for individual subjects and group analysis. In TBI patients and controls, cortical activation, found in similar regions of the frontal, occipital, and parietal lobes, resembled patterns of activation documented in previous neuroimaging studies of the Stroop task in healthy controls. However, the TBI patients showed a relative decrease in ACC activity compared with the controls. Cognitive impairment in TBI patients seems to be associated with alterations in functional cerebral activity, especially less activation of the ACC. These changes are probably the result of destruction of neural networks after diffuse axonal injury and may reflect cortical disinhibition attributable to disconnection or compensation for an inefficient cognitive process.

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Acknowledgment

The authors thank Mr. Naoki Hirata at GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Ltd., and Mr. Yukinori Kasuya for technical assistance and Ms. Ursula A. Petralia for editing the manuscript. This work was supported and approved by the Gifu Prefecture Brain Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Gifu University School of Medicine, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu City, 501-1194, Japan

    Akio Soeda & Toru Iwama

  2. Chubu Medical Center for Prolonged Traumatic Brain Dysfunction, Department of Neurosurgery, Kizawa Memorial Hospital, Minokamo, Japan

    Toshihiko Nakashima, Ayumi Okumura & Jun Shinoda

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan

    Kazuo Kuwata

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  1. Akio Soeda
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  2. Toshihiko Nakashima
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  3. Ayumi Okumura
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  4. Kazuo Kuwata
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  5. Jun Shinoda
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  6. Toru Iwama
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Correspondence to Akio Soeda.

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Soeda, A., Nakashima, T., Okumura, A. et al. Cognitive impairment after traumatic brain injury: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using the Stroop task. Neuroradiology 47, 501–506 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-005-1372-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-005-1372-x

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