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Attenuation of brain grey matter volume in brachial plexus injury patients

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Abstract

Brachial plexus injury (BPI) causes functional changes in the brain, but the structural changes resulting from BPI remain unknown. In this study, we compared grey matter volume between nine BPI patients and ten healthy controls by means of voxel-based morphometry. This was the first study of cortical morphology in BPI. We found that brain regions including the cerebellum, anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral inferior, medial, superior frontal lobe, and bilateral insula had less grey matter in BPI patients. Most of the affected brain regions of BPI patients are closely related to motor function. We speculate that the loss of grey matter in multiple regions might be the neural basis of the difficulties in the motor rehabilitation of BPI patients. The mapping result might provide new target regions for interventions of motor rehabilitation.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Hand Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, 12 Wulumuqi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, China

      Yechen Lu, Xuyun Hua, Jian-Guang Xu, Yu-Dong Gu & Yundong Shen

    2. Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, 12 Wulumuqi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, China

      Hanqiu Liu

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    1. Yechen Lu
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    2. Hanqiu Liu
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    3. Xuyun Hua
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    4. Jian-Guang Xu
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    5. Yu-Dong Gu
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    6. Yundong Shen
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    Correspondence to Yundong Shen.

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    We declare that there is no conflict of interests for this article.

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    Y. Lu and H. Liu contributed equally to this work.

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    Lu, Y., Liu, H., Hua, X. et al. Attenuation of brain grey matter volume in brachial plexus injury patients. Neurol Sci 37, 51–56 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2356-1

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-015-2356-1

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