Paper publication on lesion-symptom mapping in stroke.
This paper, entitled “Lesion symptom mapping of domain-specific cognitive impairments using routine imaging in stroke” was a joint effort of Margaret Jane Moore and Nele Demeyere. Below is a summary of the paper for the general public.
In this study, the researchers aimed to investigate if specific changes in thinking skills after stroke (Language, Attention, Praxis, Number, and Memory) could be mapped to specific brain regions. It had been well established that areas of the brain are responsible for specific mental abilities however, the researchers wanted to investigate if the functional structure was being adequately detected by a short cognitive screen and routine clinical brain imaging taken post-stoke. They investigated the association by gathering cognitive screen data from the Oxford Cognitive Screen (OCS) and routine pot-stroke imaging from 573 acute stroke survivors. A Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analysis was implemented to establish the relationship between the precise lesion location and the deficits that were present on the cognitive screen.
The analysis results demonstrated that different impairments are related to specific regions of the brain. More specifically:
- Language deficits were most associated with damage in the left frontal/temporal areas.
- Visual field deficits were associated with damage to posterior occipital areas.
- Left visuospatial neglect was associated with damage to the right temporo-parietal region.
- Right visuospatial neglect, executive dysfunction, and praxis were not associated with specific damage in any of the examined regions.
- The OCS assessment alone was able to reliably identify post-stroke cognitive deficits.
These findings further validate the OCS as an effective method for identifying domain-specific rather than domain-general deficits. The results demonstrate the use of post-stroke cognitive assessment for detecting and differentiating between distinct patterns of cognitive impairments.
Citation: Moore, M. J., & Demeyere, N. (2022). Lesion symptom mapping of domain-specific cognitive impairments using routine imaging in stroke. Neuropsychologia, 167, 108159.