The objective of this study was to characterize the alteration patterns of dynamic spatiotemporal activity in chronic subcortical stroke patients with varying motor outcomes, while investigating the imaging indicators relevant to the assessment of potential cognitive deficits in these patients.
A total of 136 patients and 88 normal controls were included in the analysis of static and dynamic intrinsic brain activity, determined by amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations.
The findings unveiled that subcortical stroke patients exhibited significantly aberrant temporal dynamics of intrinsic brain activity, involving regions within multiple brain networks. These spatiotemporal patterns were found to be contingent upon the side of the lesion. In addition, these aberrant metrics demonstrated potential in discerning cognitive deficits in stroke patients with memory impairment, with the dynamic indices exerting more influence than the static ones. The observe findings may indicate that subcortical stroke can trigger imbalances in the segregation and integration of spatiotemporal patterns across the entire brain with multi-domain networks, especially in patients with poor motor outcomes.
It suggests that the temporal dynamics indices of intrinsic brain activity could serve as potential imaging indicators for assessing cognitive impairment in patients with chronic subcortical stroke, which may be associated with the motor outcomes.