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. 2021 Mar 11;11(3):356.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci11030356.

Disrupted Pallido-Thalamo-Cortical Functional Connectivity in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness

Anna Sontheimer  1 , Bénédicte Pontier  1 , Béatrice Claise  2 , Carine Chassain  1 , Jérôme Coste  1 , Jean-Jacques Lemaire  1
Affiliations

Disrupted Pallido-Thalamo-Cortical Functional Connectivity in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness

Anna Sontheimer et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Chronic disorders of consciousness (DOC) encompass unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and minimally conscious state. Their anatomo-functional correlates are not clearly defined yet, although impairments of functional cortical networks have been reported, as well as the implication of the thalamus and deep brain structures. However, the pallidal functional connectivity with the thalamus and the cortical networks has not been studied so far. Using resting-state functional MRI, we conducted a functional connectivity study between the pallidum, the thalamus and the cortical networks in 13 patients with chronic DOC and 19 healthy subjects. We observed in chronic DOC patients that the thalami were no longer connected to the cortical networks, nor to the pallidums. Concerning the functional connectivity of pallidums, we reported an abolition of the negative correlation with the default mode network, and of the positive correlation with the salience network. The disrupted functional connectivity observed in chronic DOC patients between subcortical structures and cortical networks could be related to the mesocircuit model. A better understanding of the DOC underlying physiopathology could provide food for thought for future therapeutic proposals.

Keywords: cerebral networks; disorders of consciousness; functional resting-state connectivity; mesocircuit model; pallidum; thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) In-house-developed gray Tissue Probability Map (TPM) (right), elaborated by the overlap of SPM12 gray TPM (left) and the pallidums and thalami from the Neuromorphometrics Atlas with a fixed value of 1 (middle). (b) Comparison of the results of the gray matter segmentation from a normalized-T1 (left) with the SPM12 TPM (middle) and the in-house-developed TPM (right), in a control subject (top line) and in a patient (bottom line).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Thalamic functional connectivity (a) in the control group, and (b) between controls and patients (controls > patients). Top row, circular depiction with color-coded T-scores. Bottom rows, (a) display of network related cortices, correlated (red) and anticorrelated (blue); (b) display of differences between groups, higher functional connectivity in controls compared to patients (green with black background). C, executive network; L, language network; S, salience network; V, visual network, M, sensorimotor network.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pallidal functional connectivity (a) in the control group, (b) in patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, and (c) between controls and patients (controls > patients). Top row, circular depiction with color-coded T-scores. Bottom rows, (a,b), display of network related cortices, correlated (red) and anticorrelated (blue); (c) display of differences between groups, higher (green with black background) and lower (green) functional connectivity in controls compared to patients. L, language network; S, salience network; D, default mode network.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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