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The effect of cortico-spinal tract damage on primary sensorimotor cortex activation after rehabilitation therapy

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Abstract

Recently, it was shown that patients have different functional activation patterns within affected primary sensorimotor cortex (SMC) after intensive rehabilitation therapy. This individual difference was supposed to depend on the integrity of the cortico-spinal fibres from the primary motor cortex. In this study, we considered whether patients with different fMRI activation patterns after intensive rehabilitation therapy suffered from different cortico-spinal fibre lesions. To comprehend this circumstance a lesion subtraction analysis was used. To verify these results with the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation motor evoked potentials was also derived. Patients were treated after a modified version of constraint-induced movement therapy (modCIMT; 3 h daily for 4 weeks). Increased and decreased SMC activation showed similar individual patterns as described previously. These activation differences depend on the integrity of the cortico-spinal tract, which was measured via lesion subtraction analysis between patient groups, and was supported by affected motor evoked potentials.

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Abbreviations

BOLD:

Blood oxygenation level dependent

CIMT:

Constraint-induced movement therapy

CMCT:

Central motor conduction times

fMRI:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

MAL-AoU:

Motor activity log with amount of use

MAL-QoM:

Motor activity log with quality of movement

MEP:

Motor evoked potentials

modCIMT:

Modified version of constraint-induced movement therapy

SMC:

Primary sensorimotor cortex

TMS:

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

WMFT-FA:

Wolf motor function test with functional ability

WMFT-sec:

Wolf motor function test with number of seconds

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to P.T. Alleyne-Dettmers, Ph.D. for editing the text. We thank C. Büchel for his comments during preparation of the study’s design and an early version of the manuscript and Thomas Wolbers and Volkmar Glauche for his statistical support. We are grateful to all individuals who participated in this study, particularly to Ulrike Teske how performed the training sessions. CW was supported by DFG, BMBF (GFGO 0 123 7301—01GO 0105; DFG: WE 1352/13-1), EU (QLK6 CT 1999 02140) and by the Competence network stroke (01GI9917).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University Clinic Freiburg, Breisacherstrasse 64, 79106, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Farsin Hamzei, Michel Rijntjes & Cornelius Weiller

  2. Schmieder-Kliniken Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Christian Dettmers

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  1. Farsin Hamzei
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  2. Christian Dettmers
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  3. Michel Rijntjes
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  4. Cornelius Weiller
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Correspondence to Farsin Hamzei.

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Hamzei, F., Dettmers, C., Rijntjes, M. et al. The effect of cortico-spinal tract damage on primary sensorimotor cortex activation after rehabilitation therapy. Exp Brain Res 190, 329–336 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1474-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1474-x

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