Journal
NEUROREHABILITATION AND NEURAL REPAIR
Volume 31, Issue 1, Pages 81-94Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/1545968316662525
Keywords
stroke; connectivity; graph theory; electroencephalography; cortex; plasticity
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Funding
- Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi
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Background. After cerebral ischemia, disruption and subsequent reorganization of functional connections occur both locally and remote to the lesion. Recently, complexity of brain connectivity has been described using graph theory, a mathematical approach that depicts important properties of complex systems by quantifying topologies of network representations. Functional and dynamic changes of brain connectivity can be reliably analyzed via electroencephalography (EEG) recordings even when they are not yet reflected in structural changes of connections. Objective. We tested whether and how ischemic stroke in the acute stage may determine changes in small-worldness of cortical networks as measured by cortical sources of EEG. Methods. Graph characteristics of EEG of 30 consecutive stroke patients in acute stage (no more than 5 days after the event) were examined. Connectivity analysis was performed using eLORETA in both hemispheres. Results. Network rearrangements were mainly detected in delta, theta, and alpha bands when patients were compared with healthy subjects. In delta and alpha bands similar findings were observed in both hemispheres regardless of the side of ischemic lesion: bilaterally decreased small-worldness in the delta band and bilaterally increased small-worldness in the alpha2 band. In the theta band, bilaterally decreased small-worldness was observed only in patients with stroke in the left hemisphere. Conclusions. After an acute stroke, brain cortex rearranges its network connections diffusely, in a frequency-dependent modality probably in order to face the new anatomical and functional frame.
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