Resting-State Functional Connectivity MRI Predicts Effects of Stroke

Neurologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are using a technique called resting-state functional connectivity (FC) MRI, a method that was originally developed for the study of brain organization, to predict the effects of strokes and other brain injuries. FC-MRI shows the health of brain networks by tracking changes in blood flow to different regions of the brain. During periods of mental inactivity, blood flow in brain regions that are networked tends to rise and fall in sync, depicting the networks in the brain. The current study shows that patients with damage that disrupted network connections between regions on different sides of the brain had greater functional impairments than patients with damaged connections between regions on the same side of the brain. This suggests that the traditional theory in which the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa might be oversimplified. The researchers have plans for further studies using this method in patients with brain injury.
Press release: Scans of brain networks may help predict injury’s effects
Article abstract: Resting state inter-hemispheric fMRI connectivity predicts performance after stroke