MRI Morphological & Functional Connectivity Analysis of Thalamus in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Yongxia Zhou¹, Lin Tang¹, Daniel K. Sodickson¹, Joseph Reaume¹, Robert I. Grossman¹, Yulin Ge¹

Shape and thickness analysis as well as resting-state fMRI were performed for thalamic morphological and thalamocortical pathway changes in 23 patients with MTBI as compared to 18 normal controls. We were able to demonstrate slightly morphological changes (shape shrinkage with decreased thickness) of thalamus in MTBI patients. We also found disruption of thalamocortical functional networks indicated by reduced projected voxel number from BA39 (parietal angular area) and increased correlation strength with BA20 (inferior temporal area) in patients. Our results provide preliminary evidence of thalamic injury with both structural and functional changes in MTBI, which may have clinical relevance to cognition.