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. 2022 Oct 5:16:924938.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.924938. eCollection 2022.

Impact of early brain lesions on the optic radiations in children with cerebral palsy

Rodrigo Araneda  1   2 , Daniela Ebner-Karestinos  1   2 , Laurance Dricot  1 , Enimie Herman  1 , Samar M Hatem  1   3   4   5 , Kathleen M Friel  6 , Andrew M Gordon  7 , Yannick Bleyenheuft  1
Affiliations

Impact of early brain lesions on the optic radiations in children with cerebral palsy

Rodrigo Araneda et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Due to their early brain lesion, children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy (USCP) present important changes in brain gray and white matter, often manifested by perturbed sensorimotor functions. We predicted that type and side of the lesion could influence the microstructure of white matter tracts. Using diffusion tensor imaging in 40 children with USCP, we investigated optic radiation (OR) characteristics: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD). First, we compared the OR of the lesional and non-lesional hemisphere. Then we evaluated the impact of the brain lesion type (periventricular or cortico-subcortical) and side in the differences observed in the lesional and non-lesional OR. Additionally, we examined the relationship between OR characteristics and performance of a visuospatial attention task. We observed alterations in the OR of children with USCP on the lesional hemisphere compared with the non-lesional hemisphere in the FA, MD and RD. These differences were influenced by the type of lesion and by the side of the lesion. A correlation was also observed between FA, MD and RD and the visuospatial assessment mainly in children with periventricular and right lesions. Our results indicate an important role of the timing and side of the lesion in the resulting features of these children's OR and probably in the compensation resulting from neuroplastic changes.

Keywords: diffusion tensor imaging; early brain lesion type; hemiparesis; lesion side; white matter.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Illustration of the regions of interest drawn to execute the tracking of the fibers.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Imaging results in 10 children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy, displaying their individual optic radiation bypasses. The upper row shows examples of children with cortico-subcortical lesions and the lower row depicts children with periventricular lesions. Z-values represent the coordinates in Talairach space. OR-LH, optic radiation of the lesional hemisphere; OR-NLH, optic radiations of the non-lesional hemisphere; L-R, left-right.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Differences in white matter integrity of the OR of the lesional and non-lesional hemispheres in children with USCP. (A) Mean fractional anisotropy, (B) mean diffusivity (C) mean axial diffusivity and (D) mean radial diffusivity. OR-LH, optic radiation of the lesional hemisphere; OR-NLH, optic radiations of the non-lesional hemisphere. Error bars represent standard errors of the mean. *p < 0.05.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Differences in white matter integrity of the OR of the lesional and non-lesional hemispheres as functions of lesion type in children with USCP. (A) Fractional anisotropy, (B) mean diffusivity, (C) mean axial diffusivity and (D) mean radial diffusivity. OR-LH, optic radiation of the lesional hemisphere; OR-NLH, optic radiations of the non-lesional hemisphere. Error bars represent standard errors of the mean. *p < 0.05.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Differences in white matter integrity of the OR of the lesional and non-lesional hemispheres as functions of side of lesion in children with USCP. (A) Fractional anisotropy, (B) mean diffusivity, (C) mean axial diffusivity and (D) mean radial diffusivity. OR-LH: optic radiation of the lesional hemisphere; OR-NLH: optic radiations of the non-lesional hemisphere. Error bars represent standard errors of the mean. *p < 0.05.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Graphical representation of the two bypass routes of the optic radiations in the lesional hemisphere. (1) Optic radiations contouring the edge of lesion to reach the primary visual cortex; (2) Optic radiations passing through the lesion attain the visual cortex. LGN, Lateral geniculate nucleus; V1, primary visual cortex.
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