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. 2022 Feb 7:16:835538.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.835538. eCollection 2022.

Not Only in Sensorimotor Network: Local and Distant Cerebral Inherent Activity of Chronic Ankle Instability-A Resting-State fMRI Study

Yiyuan Shen  1 , Weiwei Wang  1 , Yin Wang  1   2 , Liqin Yang  1   3 , Chengjie Yuan  4 , Yang Yang  1 , Fei Wu  1   5 , Junlong Wang  1 , Yan Deng  1 , Xu Wang  4 , Hanqiu Liu  1
Affiliations

Not Only in Sensorimotor Network: Local and Distant Cerebral Inherent Activity of Chronic Ankle Instability-A Resting-State fMRI Study

Yiyuan Shen et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Background: Increasing evidence has proved that chronic ankle instability (CAI) is highly related to the central nervous system (CNS). However, it is still unclear about the inherent cerebral activity among the CAI patients.

Purpose: To investigate the differences of intrinsic functional cerebral activity between the CAI patients and healthy controls (HCs) and further explore its correlation with clinical measurement in CAI patients.

Materials and methods: A total of 25 CAI patients and 39 HCs were enrolled in this study. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was used to detect spontaneous cerebral activity. The metrics of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), fractional ALFF (fALFF), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) of the two groups were compared by two-sample t-test. The brain regions that demonstrated altered functional metrics were selected as the regions of interest (ROIs). The functional connectivity (FC) was analyzed based on the ROIs. The Spearman correlation was calculated between rs-fMRI metrics and clinical scale scores.

Results: Compared with HCs, CAI patients showed higher ALFF and ReHo values in the right postcentral gyrus, the right precentral gyrus, and the right middle frontal gyrus, while lower fALFF values in the orbital-frontal cortex (OFC, p < 0.01 after correction). Increasing FC between the right precentral gyrus and the right postcentral gyrus while decreasing FC between the right precentral gyrus and the anterior cingulum cortex (ACC), the right middle frontal gyrus and the left middle temporal gyrus, and the OFC and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was observed. In addition, in the CAI group, the ReHo value negatively correlated with the Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool score in the right middle frontal gyrus (r = -0.52, p = 0.007).

Conclusion: The CAI patients exhibited enhanced and more coherent regional inherent neuronal activity within the sensorimotor network while lower regional inherent activity in pain/emotion modulation related region. In addition, the information exchanges were stronger within the sensorimotor network while weaker between distant interhemispheric regions. Besides, the increased inherent activity in the right middle frontal gyrus was related to clinical severity. These findings may provide insights into the pathophysiological alteration in CNS among CAI patients.

Keywords: amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation; chronic ankle instability; functional connectivity; regional homogeneity; resting-state fMRI.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Clusters showed a significant difference in ALFF between CAI patients and HCs. The color bar indicated the t-value from two-sample t-test. The circles indicated the corresponding brain regions. The green circle: the right precentral gyrus; the blue circle: the right postcentral gyrus; and the red circle: the right middle frontal gyrus.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Cluster showed a significant difference in fALFF between CAI patients and HCs. The color bar indicated the t-value from two-sample t-test. The red circle indicated the orbital-frontal cortex.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Clusters showed a significant difference in ReHo between CAI patients and HCs. The color bar indicated the t-value from two-sample t-test. The circles indicated the corresponding brain regions. The green circle: the right precentral gyrus; the blue circle: the right postcentral gyrus; and the red circle: the right middle frontal gyrus.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Intergroup comparison of FC between the CAI patients and HCs. The blue lines: decreased FC; the red line: increased FC. Compared with the HCs, the CAI group showed (A) decreased FC between the right precentral gyrus and the left ACC and increased FC between the right precentral gyrus and the right postcentral gyrus. (B) Decreased FC between the right middle frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus. (C) Decreased FC between the OFC and the left IPL. ACG.L, the left anterior cingulate gyrus; PreCG.R, the right precentral gyrus; PoCG.R, the right postcentral gyrus; MFG.R, the right middle frontal gyrus; MTG.L, the left middle temporal gyrus; ORBmid.R, the orbital part of the right middle frontal gyrus; IPL.L, the left inferior parietal lobule.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
A negative correlation between the CAIT and ReHo value can be observed in the middle frontal gyrus (r = –0.52, p = 0.007).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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