Neural reorganization in divergent TBI recovery responses

项目总结

Project Summary Children are one of the most vulnerable populations affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI) with many experiencing chronic functional deficits. One of the major challenges associated with treating and predicting patient prognosis is the variability in functional outcomes despite similar diagnosis in TBI type and severity between patients. For example, after moderate to severe TBI, some patients experience lifelong motor function deficits while others with comparable TBI pathologies achieve full recovery. These major differences observed in TBI patient recovery may be due to varying levels of neural plasticity or reorganization potential of functional networks. It is anticipated that patients whose brains have an increased ability to undergo network reorganization would show increased TBI functional recovery. In this study, we will utilize resting state and task based functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate two neural network reorganization mechanisms, network compensation and network reallocation, to determine the role each could potentially play in a piglet TBI model that displays low and high motor function recovery similar to humans. We hypothesize that TBI piglets that show high motor function recovery will demonstrate a greater degree of network reorganization and that reorganization will shift from compensation to reallocation with increasing injury severity. The contribution of this work is highly significant and innovative as successful completion of this project will advance the limited understanding of neural network reorganization and its relationship to low and high motor function recovery. This new knowledge can be used to develop therapies that are capable of modulating neuroplasticity in a manner that leads to improved patient recovery. This work has broad implications for neural injury related fields as neural reorganization concepts and principles developed in this study are likely to translate to other neurological conditions.