Neural activation for actual and imagined movement following unilateral hand transplantation: a case study.
Date
2019-09-24
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Repository Usage Stats
views
downloads
Citation Stats
Abstract
Transplantation of a donor hand has been successful as a surgical treatment following amputation, but little is known regarding the brain mechanisms contributing to the recovery of motor function. We report functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings for neural activation related to actual and imagined movement, for a 54-year-old male patient, who had received a donor hand transplant 50 years following amputation. Two assessments, conducted 3 months and 6 months post-operatively, demonstrate engagement of motor-control related brain regions for the transplanted hand, during both actual and imagined movement of the fingers. The intact hand exhibited a more intense and focused pattern of activation for actual movement relative to imagined movement, whereas activation for the transplanted hand was more widely distributed and did not clearly differentiate actual and imagined movement. However, the spatial overlap of actual-movement and imagined-movement voxels, for the transplanted hand, did increase over time to a level comparable to that of the intact hand. At these relatively early post-operative assessments, brain regions outside of the canonical motor-control networks appear to be supporting movement of the transplanted hand.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Madden, David J, M Stephen Melton, Shivangi Jain, Angela D Cook, Jeffrey N Browndyke, Todd B Harshbarger and Linda C Cendales (2019). Neural activation for actual and imagined movement following unilateral hand transplantation: a case study. Neurocase. pp. 1–10. 10.1080/13554794.2019.1667398 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19366.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
David Joseph Madden
My research focuses primarily on the cognitive neuroscience of aging: the investigation of age-related changes in perception, attention, and memory, using both behavioral measures and neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
The behavioral measures have focused on reaction time, with the goal of distinguishing age-related changes in specific cognitive abilities from more general effects arising from a slowing in elementary perceptual processes. The cognitive abilities of interest include selective attention as measured in visual search tasks, semantic and episodic memory retrieval, and executive control processes.
The behavioral measures are necessary to define the cognitive abilities of interest, and the neuroimaging techniques help define the functional neuroanatomy of those abilities. The PET and fMRI measures provide information regarding neural activity during cognitive performance. DTI is a recently developed technique that images the structural integrity of white matter. The white matter tracts of the brain provide critical pathways linking the gray matter regions, and thus this work will complement the studies using PET and fMRI that focus on gray matter activation.
A current focus of the research program is the functional connectivity among regions, not only during cognitive task performance but also during rest. These latter measures, referred to as intrinsic functional connectivity, are beginning to show promise as an index of overall brain functional efficiency, which can be assessed without the implementation of a specific cognitive task. From DTI, information can be obtained regarding how anatomical connectivity constrains intrinsic functional connectivity. It will be important to determine the relative influence of white matter pathway integrity, intrinsic functional connectivity, and task-related functional connectivity, as mediators of age-related differences in behavioral measures of cognitive performance.
Ultimately, the research program can help link age-related changes in cognitive performance to changes in the structure and function of specific neural systems. The results also have implications for clinical translation, in terms of the identification of neural biomarkers for the diagnosis of neural pathology and targeting rehabilitation procedures.
M. Stephen Melton
Jeffrey Nicholas Browndyke
Dr. Browndyke is an Associate Professor of Behavioral Health & Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. He has a secondary appointment as Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery.
Dr. Browndyke's research interests involve the use of advanced neurocognitive and neuroimaging techniques for perioperative contributions to delirium and later dementia risk, monitoring of late-life neuropathological disease progression, and intervention/treatment outcomes. His research also involves novel telehealth methods for remote neurocognitive evaluation and implementation of non-invasive neuromodulatory techniques to assist in postoperative recovery and dementia risk reduction.
Dr. Browndyke's clinical expertise is focused upon geriatric neuropsychology with an emphasis in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of dementia and related disorders in adults and US veteran patient populations.
Todd B Harshbarger
Linda Carime Cendales
Vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) refers to the transplantation of multiple tissues, such as skin, muscle, tendon, nerve, and/or bone, as a functional unit (e.g. a hand, an abdominal wall). Several recent advances in clinical organ transplant immunosuppression and experimental VCA have now made it feasible to consider clinical VCA for functional restoration in patients with the loss of one or both hands or large tissue defects that may not be reconstructed with autologous tissue. My research facilitates the translation of VCA from the bench to the bedside.
Our group has established preclinical models to understand VCA rejection in different tissues and to use that insight to minimize immunosuppression in VCA recipients who participate in clinical trials. We also organized the first public international consensus discussions conference in VCA at the Ninth Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology in Spain in 2007 resulting in the Banff VCA 2007 classification for skin allograft pathology. Additionally, we established a VCA Consortium to enable the comprehensive analysis of samples from patients in VCA clinical trials around the country.
Based on our studies of different immunosuppressive regimens in primates, we have been the first to show that belatacept prevents rejection in VCA in primates and controls rejection in humans. We are currently investigating this approach in a clinical trial of hand transplant recipients (NCT02310867). This clinical trial aims to determine the safety and efficacy of hand transplantation as a treatment for patients with limb loss. This study will also test the efficacy of belatacept to prevent rejection of the transplanted hand. We are also currently investigating in a clinical trial the efficacy of abdominal wall transplantation for the reconstruction of abdominal wall defects (NCT03310905).
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.