Traumatic brain injury often produces executive dysfunction. This characteristic cognitive impairment often causes long-term problems with behaviour and personality. Frontal lobe injuries are associated with executive dysfunction, but it is unclear how these injuries relate to corticostriatal interactions that are known to play an important role in behavioural control. We hypothesized that executive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury would be associated with abnormal corticostriatal interactions, a question that has not previously been investigated. We used structural and functional MRI measures of connectivity to investigate this. Corticostriatal functional connectivity in healthy individuals was initially defined using a data-driven approach. A constrained independent component analysis approach was applied in 100 healthy adult dataset from the Human Connectome Project. Diffusion tractography was also performed to generate white matter tracts. The output of this analysis was used to compare corticostriatal functional connectivity and structural integrity between groups of 42 patients with traumatic brain injury and 21 age-matched controls. Subdivisions of the caudate and putamen had distinct patterns of functional connectivity. Traumatic brain injury patients showed disruption to functional connectivity between the caudate and a distributed set of cortical regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex. Cognitive impairments in the patients were mainly seen in processing speed and executive function, as well as increased levels of apathy and fatigue. Abnormalities of caudate functional connectivity correlated with these cognitive impairments, with reductions in right caudate connectivity associated with increased executive dysfunction, information processing speed and memory impairment. Structural connectivity, measured using diffusion tensor imaging between the caudate and anterior cingulate cortex was impaired and this also correlated with measures of executive dysfunction. We show for the first time that altered subcortical connectivity is associated with large-scale network disruption in traumatic brain injury and that this disruption is related to the cognitive impairments seen in these patients.

中文翻译：

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改变的尾状核连接与创伤性脑损伤后的执行功能障碍有关

创伤性脑损伤通常会导致执行功能障碍。这种特征性的认知障碍通常会导致行为和性格方面的长期问题。额叶损伤与执行功能障碍有关，但尚不清楚这些损伤如何与已知在行为控制中起重要作用的皮质纹状体相互作用相关。我们假设创伤性脑损伤后的执行功能障碍与异常的皮质纹状体相互作用有关，这是一个以前没有研究过的问题。我们使用连接性的结构和功能 MRI 测量来研究这一点。健康个体的皮质纹状体功能连接最初是使用数据驱动的方法定义的。在来自 Human Connectome Project 的 100 个健康成人数据集中应用了一种受约束的独立成分分析方法。还进行了扩散束成像以产生白质束。该分析的输出用于比较 42 名创伤性脑损伤患者和 21 名年龄匹配的对照组之间的皮质纹状体功能连接性和结构完整性。尾状核和壳核的细分具有不同的功能连接模式。外伤性脑损伤患者的尾状核和一组分布的皮质区域（包括前扣带回）之间的功能连接受到破坏。患者的认知障碍主要表现在处理速度和执行功能，以及冷漠和疲劳程度的增加。尾状核功能连接异常与这些认知障碍相关，右尾状核连接减少与执行功能障碍、信息处理速度和记忆障碍增加相关。使用尾状核和前扣带皮层之间的扩散张量成像测量的结构连接性受损，这也与执行功能障碍的测量相关。我们首次表明，皮质下连接的改变与创伤性脑损伤中的大规模网络中断有关，并且这种中断与这些患者的认知障碍有关。信息处理速度和记忆障碍。使用尾状核和前扣带皮层之间的扩散张量成像测量的结构连接性受损，这也与执行功能障碍的测量相关。我们首次表明，皮质下连接的改变与创伤性脑损伤中的大规模网络中断有关，并且这种中断与这些患者的认知障碍有关。信息处理速度和记忆障碍。使用尾状核和前扣带皮层之间的扩散张量成像测量的结构连接性受损，这也与执行功能障碍的测量相关。我们首次表明，皮质下连接的改变与创伤性脑损伤中的大规模网络中断有关，并且这种中断与这些患者的认知障碍有关。