Brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is generally considered as a congenital lesion. Its unique clinical manifestation is that when the unruptured AVM involves and destroys the language function area of the left hemisphere, the patient has almost no language disorder. This phenomenon is distinct from those of acquired diseases such as cerebral infarction and gliomas. There is a hypothesis that it might be associated with that the occurrence of AVM is earlier than period of language learning. Therefore, patients with AVMs involving language areas can be regarded as population whose language areas are congenital "knocked out" but the language functions remain normal, which provide a special model and new insights for language reorganization research. Previous studies have found that the right hemisphere plays an important role in the remodeling of language function in patients with AVMs, but the specific mechanism remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to further elaborate the role of the right cerebral hemisphere in the reorganized language network and the interhemispheric interaction mechanisms in patients with AVMs involving the language areas, using multimodal magnetic resonanceimaging and from multiple dimensions such as functional remodeling, white matter pathway remodeling, structural remodeling, etc., so as to further understand the remodeling mechanism of the Chinese language network after damage of language areas, and also to provide a theoretical basis for the protection of language function in brain network surgery.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
120
All participants underwent MRI scans
No. 119 South 4th Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing 100070, China
Beijing, China
Structural MRI (sMRI) Primary Metric
Cortical thickness of bilateral language-related brain regions (measured via FreeSurfer); intergroup differences between AVM patients and healthy controls
Time frame: baseline and three months after surgery
Functional MRI Secondary Metrics
Resting-state regional brain activity: Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuation (ALFF) and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) Dynamic effective connectivity (DCM): Excitatory/inhibitory effective connectivity between lesioned left hemisphere and remodeled right hemisphere regions
Time frame: baseline and three months after surgery
Diffusion MRI (dMRI) Primary Metrics
White matter microstructural integrity: Fractional Anisotropy (FA, DTI) and Neurite Density Index (NDI, NODDI) of language-related white matter tracts Corpus callosum diffusion metrics (FA, NDI) reflecting interhemispheric communication
Time frame: baseline and three months after surgery
Multimodal Combined & Exploratory Metrics
Function-structure coupling: Correlation analysis between fMRI LI, cortical thickness, and white matter FA/NDI Track-weighted dynamic functional connectivity (TW-dFC): White matter tract-mediated dynamic functional interactions Graph theory brain network analysis: Global efficiency, local efficiency, nodal degree, and modularity of the language network Subgroup comparative metrics: Neuroimaging differences between right-hemisphere remodelers and non-remodelers Correlation between imaging metrics and basic demographic/clinical variables (age, lesion location)
Time frame: baseline and three months after surgery
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.