Chiara Mastropasqua1, 2, Marco Bozzali1, Mara Cercignani, 13, Barbara Basile1, Sonia Bonn4, Giacomo Koch4, 5
1Neuroimaging laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome, Italy; 2Neuroscience, Trieste University, Trieste, Italy; 3Brighton & Sussex Medical School,Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom; 4Laboratory of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, Rome, Italy; 5Stroke Unit, Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
Using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS), we investigated the contribution of left hemisphere (LH) microstructural white matter (WM) changes in accounting for the presence and severity of hemispatial neglect in patients suffering from right-side stroke. TBSS analysis revealed a diffuse reduction of FA in most WM tracts of the LH, and a an association between neuropsychological measures of neglect severity and FA values in the region of the CC connecting the two parietal cortices. This study supports, on a microstructural basis, the theory that hemispatial neglect originates, by disconnection mechanism, from an unbalance of interhemispheric interaction between the two parietal cortices.