Abnormal Effective Connectivity of the Anterior Forebrain Regions in Disorders of Consciousness
Ping Chen1 • Qiuyou Xie2 • Xiaoyan Wu1 • Huiyuan Huang1 • Wei Lv2 • Lixiang Chen1 • Yequn Guo2 • Shufei Zhang1 • Huiqing Hu1 • You Wang3 • Yangang Nie4 • Ronghao Yu2,* • Ruiwang Huang1,*
1Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Institute for Brain Research and Rehabilitation, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
2Centre for Hyperbaric Oxygen and Neurorehabilitation, Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command, Guangzhou 510010, China
3Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
4School of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Abstract
A number of studies have indicated that disorders of consciousness result from multifocal injuries as well as from the impaired functional and anatomical connectivity between various anterior forebrain regions. However, the specific causal mechanism linking these regions remains unclear. In this study, we used spectral dynamic causal modeling to assess how the effective connections (ECs) between various regions differ between individuals. Next, we used connectome-based predictive modeling to evaluate the performance of the ECs in predicting the clinical scores of DOC patients. We found increased ECs from the striatum to the globus pallidus as well as from the globus pallidus to the posterior cingulate cortex, and decreased ECs from the globus pallidus to the thalamus and from the medial prefrontal cortex to the striatum in DOC patients as compared to healthy controls. Prediction of the patients’ outcome was effective using the negative ECs as features. In summary, the present study highlights a key role of the thalamo-basal ganglia-cortical loop in DOCs and supports the anterior forebrain mesocircuit hypothesis. Furthermore, EC could be potentially used to assess the consciousness level.
Keywords
Mesocircuit; Basal ganglia; Posterior cingulate cortex; Spectral dynamic causal modeling; Connectome-based predictive modeling
