Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1509899
This article is part of the Research Topic Alterations in brain structure, function and cognitive abilities caused by cerebrovascular diseases View all 3 articles

Cognitive and Cortical Network Alterations in Pediatric Temporal Lobe Space-Occupying Lesions: An fMRI Study

Provisionally accepted
Bohan Hu Bohan Hu 1,2,3*Xueyi Guan Xueyi Guan 1,2,3*Huina Zhai Huina Zhai 4*Xu Han Xu Han 1Cuiling Hu Cuiling Hu 1*Jian Gong Jian Gong 1,2,3*
  • 1 Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2 Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 3 Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
  • 4 Beijing RIMAG Medical Imaging Center, Beijing, China

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

    Temporal lobe mass lesions are the most common intracranial space-occupying lesions in children, among various brain lobes. The temporal lobe is critically involved in higher cognitive functions, and surgical interventions often risk causing damage to these functions. If necessary interventions and prehabilitation can be conducted preoperatively, it might be possible to achieve a larger extent of lesion resection with minimal cognitive impairment. However, research in this area has been relatively limited in the past. Our study aims to fill this gap.We enrolled 15 children with temporal lobe mass lesions and 15 age-and gender-matched healthy children as controls. All participants underwent cognitive assessments and functional MRI scans. The cognitive testing data and functional MRI data were then analyzed and compared between the two groups.Our findings suggest that children with temporal lobe mass lesions primarily exhibit impairments in working memory and sustained attention. Multiple brain network indices were altered in the affected children, with the most prominent change being hyperactivation of the default mode network (DMN). This hyperactivation was correlated with cognitive impairments, indicating that the overactivation of the DMN might represent an inefficient compensatory mechanism within the brain's networks.Compared to healthy children, those with temporal lobe mass lesions experience deficits in working memory and sustained attention, and the hyperactivation of the DMN may be the underlying network mechanism driving these cognitive impairments. Our research offers a unique and clinically valuable reference for future studies on preoperative interventions and prehabilitation in this population.

    Keywords: pediatric, Cognition, cerebrum network, ineffective compensation, Prehabilitation, DMN(default mode network)

    Received: 11 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hu, Guan, Zhai, Han, Hu and Gong. 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:
    Bohan Hu, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, Beijing Municipality, China
    Xueyi Guan, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, Beijing Municipality, China
    Huina Zhai, Beijing RIMAG Medical Imaging Center, Beijing, China
    Cuiling Hu, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, Beijing Municipality, China
    Jian Gong, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100050, Beijing Municipality, 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.