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Our previous research on traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients has shown a strong relationship between specific white matter (WM) diffusion properties and motor deficits. The potential impact of TBI-related changes in network organization of the associated WM structural network on motor performance, however, remains largely unknown. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) based fiber tractography to reconstruct the human brain WM networks of 12 TBI and 17 control participants, followed by a graph theoretical analysis. A force platform was used to measure changes in body posture under conditions of compromised proprioceptive and/or visual feedback. Findings revealed that compared with controls, TBI patients showed higher betweenness centrality and normalized path length, and lower values of local efficiency, implying altered network organization. These results were not merely a consequence of differences in number of connections. In particular, TBI patients displayed reduced structural connectivity in frontal, parieto-premotor, visual, subcortical, and temporal areas. In addition, the decreased connectivity degree was significantly associated with poorer balance performance. We conclude that analyzing the structural brain networks with a graph theoretical approach provides new insights into motor control deficits following brain injury.
Pubmed ID: 24179743
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A large selection of complex network measures in Matlab that are increasingly used to characterize structural and functional brain connectivity datasets. Several people have contributed to the toolbox, and if you wish to contribute with a new function or set of functions, please contact Olaf Sporns. All efforts have been made to avoid errors, but users are strongly urged to independently verify the accuracy and suitability of toolbox functions for the chosen application. Please report bugs or substantial improvements.
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