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Divergent Findings in Brain Reorganization After Spinal Cord Injury: A Review
Author(s) -
Melo Mariana Cardoso,
Macedo Dhainner Rocha,
Soares Alcimar Barbosa
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/jon.12711
Subject(s) - medicine , neuroscience , spinal cord injury , functional magnetic resonance imaging , spinal cord , neuroimaging , ankle , lesion , magnetic resonance imaging , traumatic brain injury , brain activity and meditation , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anatomy , psychology , electroencephalography , pathology , radiology , psychiatry
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to a general lack of sensory and motor functions below the level of injury and may promote deafferentation‐induced brain reorganization. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been established as an essential tool in neuroscience research and can precisely map the spatiotemporal distribution of brain activity. Task‐based fMRI experiments associated with the tongue, upper limbs, or lower limbs have been used as the primary paradigms to study brain reorganization following SCI. A review of the current literature on the subject shows one common trait: while most articles agree that brain networks are usually preserved after SCI, and that is not the case as some articles describe possible alterations in brain activation after the lesion. There is no consensus if those alterations indeed occur. In articles that show alterations, there is no agreement if they are transient or permanent. Besides, there is no consensus on which areas are most prone to activation changes, or on the intensity and direction (increase vs. decrease) of those possible changes. In this article, we present a critical review of the literature and trace possible reasons for those contradictory findings on brain reorganization following SCI. fMRI studies based on the ankle dorsiflexion, upper‐limb, and tongue paradigms are used as case studies for the analyses.