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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1478891
This article is part of the Research Topic Updates and Discussions About Basal Ganglia and Their Circuits View all 6 articles

Cerebellar-cerebral circuits functional connectivity in patients with cognitive impairment after basal ganglia stroke: a pilot study

Provisionally accepted
Lijun ZUO Lijun ZUO 1*Xinlong Lan Xinlong Lan 2Yijun Zhou Yijun Zhou 2Hao Liu Hao Liu 2Yang Hu Yang Hu 1Yongjun Wang Yongjun Wang 1Tao Liu Tao Liu 2Zixiao Li Zixiao Li 1lijun zuo lijun zuo 1
  • 1 Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
  • 2 Beihang University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To assess the pattern of functional connectivity (FC) of the cerebellar subregion with the basal ganglia (BG) and cortex, and explore the relationship between FC patterns with cognition after stroke with BG infarcts. A total of 39 stroke patients and 29 healthy controls were recruited and four cerebellar seed points were selected and the FC of each seed point to other voxels in the whole brain was calculated. The FC and cognition were compared between the two groups and their correlations were subsequently analyzed. Compared with healthy controls, the FC between the bilateral cerebellum IX and BG (especially the head of the caudate nucleus) from stroke patients was increased, which was positively correlated with episodic memory, visuospatial ability, and attention. The FCs between the right cerebellum CrusI/II and BG, as well as the bilateral cerebellum VI and BG (especially the head of the caudate nucleus), were increased, which was positively correlated with episodic memory. The FC between the bilateral cerebellum region IX and the right caudal cuneus was decreased, which was negatively correlated with episodic memory, language, and attention, and positively correlated with executive function. The FC between the bilateral cerebellum VI and the bilateral inferior parietal lobule was increased, which was positively correlated with episodic memory, language, and attention. The FC of the right cerebellum VI and the left insula was decreased, as well as FCs of the right cerebellum CrusI/II and left insular, which was negatively correlated with episodic memory. The enhanced FC of the cerebellar-basal ganglia and the reorganization of new neural circuits of the cerebellar cortex may contribute to the recovery of cognitive function, and might be a compensatory response of the cerebellum against stroke injury.

    Keywords: Stroke, cognitive impairment, functional connectivity, Cerebellum, cerebellar-cerebral circuits

    Received: 12 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 ZUO, Lan, Zhou, Liu, Hu, Wang, Liu, Li and zuo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lijun ZUO, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.