Page 309 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

ABSTRACT Mild traumatic brain (mTBI) injury is often Mild traumatic brain injury impairs the coordination
associated with long-term cognitive and behavioral of intrinsic and motor-related neural dynamics
complications, including an increased risk of memory (2021)
impairment. Current research challenges include a lack
of cross-modal convergence regarding the underlying Rier, Lukas; Zamyadi, Rouzbeh; Zhang, Jing; Emami,
neural-behavioral mechanisms of mTBI, which hin- Zahra; Seedat, Zelekha A; Mocanu, Sergiu; Gascoyne,
ders therapeutics and outcome management for this Lauren E; Allen, Christopher M; Scadding, John W;
frequently under-treated and vulnerable population. Furlong, Paul L; Gooding-Williams, Gerard; Woolrich,
We used multi-modality imaging methods including Mark W; Evangelou, Nikos; Brookes, Matthew J;
magnetoencephalography (MEG) and diffusion tensor Dunkley, Benjamin T
imaging (DTI) to investigate brain-behavior impair-
ment in mTBI related to working memory. A total of 41 Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and
participants were recruited, including 23 patients with Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Not-
a first-time mTBI imaged within 3 months of injury (all tingham NG7 2RD, UK; Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick
male, age = 29.9, SD = 6.9), and 18 control participants Children, Toronto, Canada; Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital
(all male, age = 27.3, SD = 5.3). Whole-brain statistics for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; Neurosciences & Mental
revealed spatially concomitant functional-structural Health, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto,
disruptions in brain-behavior interactions in working Canada; Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick
memory in the mTBI group compared with the control Children Research Institute, Toronto, Canada; Faculty of
group. These disruptions are located in the hippocam- Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; Mental
pal-prefrontal region and, additionally, in the amygdala Health and Clinical Neurosciences Academic Unit, School
(measured by MEG neural activation and DTI measures of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical
of fractional anisotropy in relation to working memory Centre, Nottingham, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and
performance; p < .05, two-way ANCOVA, nonparamet- Neurosurgery, London, UK; Institute of Health and Neurode-
ric permutations, corrected). Impaired brain-behavior velopment, Aston University, Birmingham, UK; Oxford Centre
connections found in the hippocampal-prefrontal for Human Brain Activity, Warneford Hospital, University of
and amygdala circuits indicate brain dysregulation of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick
memory, which may leave mTBI patients vulnerable to Children, Toronto, Canada; Neurosciences & Mental Health,
increased environmental demands exerting memory Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Canada;
resources, leading to related cognitive and emotional Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
psychopathologies. The findings yield clinical implica-
tions and highlight a need for early rehabilitation after ABSTRACT Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) poses
mTBI, including attention- and sensory-based behav- a considerable burden on healthcare systems. Whilst
ioral exercises. most patients recover quickly, a significant number
suffer from sequelae that are not accompanied by
Keywords: diffusion tensor imaging, hippocampus, measurable structural damage. Understanding the
magnetoencephalography, mild traumatic brain injury, neural underpinnings of these debilitating effects and
working memory developing a means to detect injury, would address an
important unmet clinical need. It could inform inter-
Human brain mapping (2022), Vol. 43, No. 17 (35796166) ventions and help predict prognosis. Magnetoencepha-
(1 citation) lography (MEG) affords excellent sensitivity in probing
neural function and presents significant promise for
assessing mTBI, with abnormal neural oscillations be-
ing a potential specific biomarker. However, growing
evidence suggests that neural dynamics are (at least in
part) driven by transient, pan-spectral bursting and in

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