MEG-Derived Functional Tractography, Results for Normal and Concussed Cohorts

TL;DR

This study uses MEG to measure neuroelectric activity in white matter tracts, revealing significant reductions in activity among TBI patients compared to normative data, with some mild TBI individuals showing multiple tract impairments.

Contribution

Introduces a novel MEG-based method for functional tractography to differentiate TBI patients from healthy controls.

Findings

TBI patients show significantly reduced activity in 10 white matter tracts.

More than one tract was affected in seven mild TBI individuals.

Reduced activity was statistically significant with p < 10-6 for TBI group.

Abstract

Measures of neuroelectric activity from each of 18 automatically identified white matter tracts were extracted from resting MEG recordings from a normative, n=588, and a chronic TBI, traumatic brain injury, n=63, cohort, 60 of whose TBIs were mild. Activity in the TBI cohort was significantly reduced compared with the norms for ten of the tracts, p < 10-6 for each. Significantly reduced activity (p < 10-3) was seen in more than one tract in seven mTBI individuals and one member of the normative cohort.