Modeling the Impact of Lesions in the Human Brain

By J. Alstott, Michael Breakspear, Patric Hagmann, Leila Cammoun, Olaf Sporns. PLoS Comput. Biol., 2009

580 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Lesions of anatomical brain networks result in functional disturbances of brain systems and behavior which depend sensitively, often unpredictably, on the lesion site. The availability of whole-brain maps of structural connections within the human cerebrum and our increased understanding of the physiology and large-scale dynamics of cortical networks allow us to investigate the functional consequences of focal brain lesions in a computational model. We simulate the dynamic effects of lesions placed in different regions of the cerebral cortex by recording changes in the pattern of endogenous (“resting-state”) neural activity. We find that lesions produce specific patterns of altered functional connectivity among distant regions of cortex, often affecting both cortical hemispheres. The magnitude of these dynamic effects depends on the lesion location and is partly predicted by structural network properties of the lesion site. In the model, lesions along the cortical midline and in the vicinity of the temporo-parietal junction result in large and widely distributed changes in functional connectivity, while lesions of primary sensory or motor regions remain more localized. The model suggests that dynamic lesion effects can be predicted on the basis of specific network measures of structural brain networks and that these effects may be related to known behavioral and cognitive consequences of brain lesions.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/362ac018bcd85b9caae3246a61c7acb8a5bff935

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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Citations in the corpus

Evidence for potentials and limitations of brain plasticity using an atlas of functional resectability of WHO grade II gliomas: Towards a "minimal common brain" (2011, result): “This hypothesis is in good agreement with recent biomathematical models, analyzing the effect of a simulated focal lesion on the whole brain network topology (Alstott et al., 2009).”
Dynamic functional reorganization of the motor execution network after stroke. (2010, background): “However, the function of the brain is always closely associated with its structure (Alstott et al., 2009; Honey et al., 2009; van den Heuvel et al., 2009).”
Networks of the Brain: Quantitative Analysis and Modeling (2010, unknown): “In a neurobiological context, the loss of more highly central nodes or edges owing to trauma or disease should result in more widespread disruptions of information flow and dynamics in the remaining brain (Alstott et al., 2009).”
Breakdown of within- and between-network Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Connectivity during Propofol-induced Loss of Consciousness (2010, result): “Our results are also consistent with those from studies showing that the functional impairment of highly connected frontoparietal areas has greater repercussions on global brain function than that of less centrally connected sensorimotor areas.(94,95) Taken as a whole, the present findings suggest t”
The hubs of the human connectome are generally implicated in the anatomy of brain disorders (2014, background): “Iturria-Medina et al., 2008; Alstott et al., 2009), demonstrating that targeted attacks on hubs, or the longer distance edges, of the normal DTI connectome were especially likely to degrade its global efficiency.”
Why fish do not feel pain (2016, background): “Disclosure statement: The author states that he has not been paid for this work and has no conflict of interest.”
Network attributes for segregation and integration in the human brain. (2013, background): “Some early studies have investigated network damage in large-scale simulations of spontaneous neural activity and their associated BOLD signal fluctuations unfolding in an empirically measured structural brain network [54,55].”
Development of large-scale functional networks from birth to adulthood: a guide to neuroimaging literature (2017, methodology): “As an example, simulation experiments using structure-function models have predicted that even purely focal and transient perturbations in activity should result in diffuse network reorganization that affects distant brain systems (Alstott et al., 2009; Honey and Sporns, 2008; Misic et al., 2015).”
Functional and Effective Connectivity: A Review (2011, unknown): “Dynamical approaches to understanding phenomena in neuroimaging data focus on emergent behaviors and the constraints under which brain-like behaviors manifest (e.g., Breakspear and Stam, 2005; Alstott et al., 2009).”
The social brain in psychiatric and neurological disorders (2012, unknown): “Modeling-based work has begun to shed light on how lesions of particular network nodes impact network function, with a generally more severe consequence for lesions to more medial structures than to lateral structures [69].”
Contributions and challenges for network models in cognitive neuroscience (2014, methodology): “…may give unreliable results because the primary effect of any realworld lesion is the disruption of a struc tural network, followed by systemwide compensatory effects and readjustments of functional couplings involving functional connec tions between regions remote to the lesion site 73,78,90 .”
Structural and Functional Brain Networks: From Connections to Cognition (2013, background): “However, there appears to be a greater vulnerability and topological reorganization after damage to central hubs or rich clubs (16, 19).”
Rich-Club Organization of the Human Connectome (2011, background): “…mass modeling of structural damage to the brain network have provided first insight into the dynamical effects of virtual brain lesions, indicating that damage to topologically central brain regions have greater effects on cortical synchronization (Honey and Sporns, 2008; Alstott et al., 2009).”