Kwang-Ik Jung, Ah-Young Jun, Yun-Hee Kim, Shahid Bashir, Suk Hoon Ohn, SeungHo Ahn, Chang-hyun Park and Woo-Kyoung Yoo
Objective: Subcortical lesion involving basal ganglia can cause a wide range of behavioral and cognitive
alterations largely attributed to disconnection of subcortical fibers; however, the underlying neural correlates of
cognitive dysfunction based on the integrity of the white matter fiber has not yet been explored in stroke patients.
Methods: The correlations among cognitive function and diffusion metrics of each subcortical fiber were
investigated in nine basal ganglia stroke patients by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in our study.
Results: Patient’s general cognitive and verbal working memory function correlated well with the integrity of the
left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), nonverbal attention with the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), SLF,
and frontostriatal (FS) fibers. On the other hand, nonverbal long-term memory correlated well with the integrity of the
right ILF and FS fibers.
Conclusions: Neurocognitive characteristics of patients with basal ganglia stroke seem to reflect the integrity of
subcortical fiber connectivity.