Meeting Banner
Abstract #2231

Evolution of Functional Connectivity After Transient Stroke in Rats

Woo Shim1,2, Kwangyeol Yeol Baek1,2, Jeong Kon Kim3, Guangping Dai1, Jaeseong Jeong2, Bruce Rosen1, Young Ro Kim1

1Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States; 2Bio and brain engineering, KAIST, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea, Republic of; 3Radiology, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, Republic of


We monitored changes of resting-states functional connectivity using cross-correlation technique over a period of 30 days after transient cerebral ischemic damage. Averaged correlation strengths among some ROIs in stroke rats monotonically increased within the contralesional hemisphere over time, eventually matching those in control group. Despite the slight recovery, cross-correlation values measured within ipsilesional hemisphere and between bilateral hemispheres show severely impaired functional connectivity over 30 days after stroke. Although highly speculative, the data demonstrated that the initial limb dysfunction is related to the loss of brain connectivity in both ipsi- and contra-lesonal brain regions and that the restoration of function may be associated more with the increase of functional connectivity within the contralesional than the ipsilesional hemisphere.

Keywords