Elsevier

Cortex

Volume 129, August 2020, Pages 141-157
Cortex

Research Report
Tumor grade-related language and control network reorganization in patients with left cerebral glioma

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.015Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

Language processing relies on both a functionally specialized language network and a domain-general cognitive control network. Yet, how the two networks reorganize after damage resulting from diffuse and progressive glioma remains largely unknown. To address this issue, 130 patients with left cerebral gliomas, including 77 patients with low-grade glioma (LGG, WHO grade Ⅰ/II), 53 patients with high-grade glioma (HGG, WHO grade III/IV) and 38 healthy controls (HC) were adopted. The changes in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the language network and the cingulo-opercular/fronto-parietal (CO-FP) network were examined using network-based statistics. We found that tumor grade negatively correlated with language scores and language network integrity. Compared with HCs, patients with LGGs exhibited slight language deficits, both decreased and increased changes in rsFC of language network, and nearly normal CO-FP network. Patients with HGGs had significantly lower language scores than those with LGG and exhibited more severe language and CO-FP network disruptions than HCs or patients with LGGs. Moreover, we found that in patients with HGGs, the decreased rsFCs of language network were positively correlated with language scores. Together, our findings suggest tumor grade-related network reorganization of both language and control networks underlie the different levels of language impairments observed in patients with gliomas.

Keywords

Glioma
Language
Executive function
Plasticity
Resting-state fMRI

Abbreviations

LGG
low-grade glioma
HGG
high-grade glioma
ABC
Aphasia Battery of Chinese
AQ
aphasia quotient
SS
spontaneous speech
Com
comprehension

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1

These authors contributed equally to this work.