Frequency specific alterations of the degree centrality in patients with acute basal ganglia ischemic stroke: a resting-state fMRI study

This study intended to investigate the frequency specific brain oscillation activity in patients with acute basal ganglia ischemic stroke (BGIS) by using the degree centrality (DC) method. A total of 34 acute BGIS patients and 44 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning. The DC values in three frequency bands (conventional band: 0.01–0.08 Hz, slow‑4 band: 0.027–0.073 Hz, slow‑5 band: 0.01–0.027 Hz) were calculated. A two-sample t-test was used to explore the between-group differences in the conventional frequency band. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the DC differences between groups (BGIS patients, HCs) and bands (slow‑4, slow‑5). Moreover, correlations between DC values and clinical indicators were performed. In conventional band, the DC value in the right middle temporal gyrus was decreased in BGIS patients compared with HCs. Significant differences of DC were observed between the two bands mainly in the bilateral cortical brain regions. Compared with the HCs, the BGIS patients showed increased DC in the right superior temporal gyrus and the left precuneus, but decreased mainly in the right inferior temporal gyrus, right inferior occipital gyrus, right precentral, and right supplementary motor area. Furthermore, the decreased DC in the right rolandic operculum in slow-4 band and the right superior temporal gyrus in slow-5 band were found by post hoc two-sample t-test of main effect of group. There was no significant correlation between DC values and clinical scales after Bonferroni correction. Our findings showed that the DC changes in BGIS patients were frequency specific. Functional abnormalities in local brain regions may help us to understand the underlying pathogenesis mechanism of brain functional reorganization of BGIS patients.