Influence of subcortical ischemic stroke on cortical neural network

Stroke has remained as a leading cause of death and neurological disability worldwide in the past decades. Previous structural and functional studies reported little information regarding cortical neural network after stroke. Using the causality measure based on multi-channel electroencephalograph (EEG), i.e. partial directed coherence (PDC) in this paper, we investigated the different network patterns involved in pre-motor and parietal areas (F3, F4, C3, C4, P3 and P4) in three groups of patients who suffered unilateral or bilateral hemispheric stroke in basal ganglia with extension into corona radiate. Compared with the results in the control group, stroke patients showed: 1) more vulnerable long-distance intra- and inter-hemispheric interactions due to the ischemic injury; 2) strengthened short-distance interactions between the central areas in the intact hemisphere with the injured counterpart, which implied a functional compensation after unilateral stroke; 3) more suppression of cortical connections after bilateral hemispheric stroke than those with unilateral stroke. Causal interdependence by PDC analysis provides a new insight of cortical functional network following stroke.