Functional MRI Shows Altered Deactivation and a Corresponding Decrease in Functional Connectivity of the Default Mode Network in Patients with Gliomas

Examples of correlation maps in an axial view for patients with gliomas in different locations (patient A, posterior DMN; patient B, anterior DMN; patient C, outside DMN). The first row of images shows task-paradigm correlation maps. Blue represents areas of negative correlation, and orange represents areas of positive correlation to the language task. The second row of images illustrates the PCC ROI task-based fMRI correlation maps. Red and yellow represent areas of increased connectivity to the PCC ROI. The third row of images illustrates PCC ROI resting-state fMRI correlation maps. Patient A has a right-hemisphere glioblastoma invading the posterior DMN. Patient B has a left-hemisphere anaplastic oligodendroglioma invading the anterior DMN. Patient C has a left-hemisphere oligodendroglioma outside the DMN. The first 2 rows demonstrate a decreased anticorrelation in the DMN in the area of the tumor that corresponds to a decrease in both resting-state and task-based fMRI connectivity.

Box-and-whisker plots illustrating the distribution of average correlation values in the term of task-induced deactivation of PCC region of the DMN for controls and patients by tumor location (A), tumor hemisphere (C), and tumor grade (E) and average correlation values of the mPFC region of the DMN for controls and patients in both the PCC ROI task-based correlation map and the PCC ROI resting-state correlation map by tumor location (B), tumor hemisphere (D), and tumor grade (F) .