Significance: Dystonia is a dynamic and complex disorder. Real-time analysis of brain activity during motor tasks may increase our knowledge on its pathophysiology. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive method that enables the measurement of cortical hemodynamic activity in unconstrained environments. Aim: We aimed to explore the feasibility of using fNIRS for the study of task-related brain activity in dystonia. Task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and resting-state functional connectivity were also analyzed. Approach: Patients with idiopathic right-upper limb dystonia and controls were assessed through nonsimultaneous fMRI and fNIRS during a finger-tapping task. Seed-based connectivity analysis of resting-state fMRI was performed in both groups. Results: The fMRI results suggest nonspecific activation of the cerebellum and occipital lobe in dystonia patients during the finger-tapping task with the affected hand. Moreover, fNIRS data show lower activation in terms of oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin in the frontal, ipsilateral cortex, and somatosensory areas during this task. In dystonia, both fMRI and fNIRS data resulted in hypoactivation of the frontal cortex during finger tapping with both hands simultaneously. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis suggests that the cerebellar somatomotor network in dystonia has an increased correlation with the medial prefrontal cortex and the paracingulate gyrus. Conclusions: These data suggest that unbalanced activation of the cerebellum, somatosensory, and frontal cortical areas are associated with dystonia. To our knowledge, this is the first study using fNIRS to explore the pathophysiology of dystonia. We show that fNIRS and fMRI are complementary methods and highlight the potential of fNIRS for the study of dystonia and other movement disorders as it can overcome movement restrictions, enabling experiments in more naturalistic conditions.

中文翻译：

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上肢肌张力障碍中与任务相关的大脑活动和功能连接性：功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）研究

意义：肌张力障碍是一种动态复杂的疾病。在运动任务期间对大脑活动进行实时分析可能​​会增加我们对其病理生理学的了解。功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）是一种非侵入性方法，可在不受限制的环境中测量皮质血液动力学活性。目的：我们旨在探讨使用fNIRS研究肌张力障碍中与任务相关的大脑活动的可行性。任务相关功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和静止状态功能连接也进行了分析。方法：在手指轻敲任务期间，通过非同时进行的fMRI和fNIRS对患有特发性右上肢肌张力障碍和对照的患者进行了评估。两组均进行了基于种子的静止状态功能磁共振成像分析。结果：功能磁共振成像结果表明，在用患病的手进行手指敲击任务期间，肌张力障碍患者的小脑和枕叶非特异性激活。此外，fNIRS数据显示，在此任务期间，额叶，同侧皮层和体感区的氧合血红蛋白和总血红蛋白的活化程度较低。在肌张力障碍中，fMRI和fNIRS数据均导致两只手同时敲击手指时额叶皮质的激活不足。静息状态功能连接性分析表明，肌张力障碍中的小脑躯体运动网络与内侧前额叶皮层和带刺的回旋的相关性增加。结论：这些数据表明小脑，体感和额叶皮层区域激活不平衡与肌张力障碍有关。据我们所知，这是首次使用fNIRS探索肌张力障碍的病理生理学的研究。我们显示fNIRS和fMRI是互补的方法，并突出了fNIRS在肌张力障碍和其他运动障碍研究中的潜力，因为它可以克服运动障碍，从而可以在更自然的条件下进行实验。