Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence

Previously we showed, using task-evoked fMRI, that compensatory intact hand usage after amputation facilitates remapping of limb representations in the cortical territory of the missing hand (Makin et al., 2013a). Here we show that compensatory arm usage in individuals born without a hand (one-hande...

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Main Authors: Hahamy, Avital, Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N., Henderson Slater, David, Malach, Rafael, Johansen-Berg, Heidi, Makin, Tamar R.
Format: Article
Published: eLife Sciences Publications 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50951/
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author Hahamy, Avital
Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N.
Henderson Slater, David
Malach, Rafael
Johansen-Berg, Heidi
Makin, Tamar R.
author_facet Hahamy, Avital
Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N.
Henderson Slater, David
Malach, Rafael
Johansen-Berg, Heidi
Makin, Tamar R.
author_sort Hahamy, Avital
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Previously we showed, using task-evoked fMRI, that compensatory intact hand usage after amputation facilitates remapping of limb representations in the cortical territory of the missing hand (Makin et al., 2013a). Here we show that compensatory arm usage in individuals born without a hand (one-handers) reflects functional connectivity of spontaneous brain activity in the cortical hand region. Compared with two-handed controls, one-handers showed reduced symmetry of hand region inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity and corticospinal white matter microstructure. Nevertheless, those one-handers who more frequently use their residual (handless) arm for typically bimanual daily tasks also showed more symmetrical functional connectivity of the hand region, demonstrating that adaptive behaviour drives long-range brain organisation. We therefore suggest that compensatory arm usage maintains symmetrical sensorimotor functional connectivity in one-handers. Since variability in spontaneous functional connectivity in our study reflects ecological behaviour, we propose that inter-hemispheric symmetry, typically observed in resting sensorimotor networks, depends on coordinated motor behaviour in daily life.
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spelling nottingham-509512020-05-04T17:01:21Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50951/ Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence Hahamy, Avital Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N. Henderson Slater, David Malach, Rafael Johansen-Berg, Heidi Makin, Tamar R. Previously we showed, using task-evoked fMRI, that compensatory intact hand usage after amputation facilitates remapping of limb representations in the cortical territory of the missing hand (Makin et al., 2013a). Here we show that compensatory arm usage in individuals born without a hand (one-handers) reflects functional connectivity of spontaneous brain activity in the cortical hand region. Compared with two-handed controls, one-handers showed reduced symmetry of hand region inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity and corticospinal white matter microstructure. Nevertheless, those one-handers who more frequently use their residual (handless) arm for typically bimanual daily tasks also showed more symmetrical functional connectivity of the hand region, demonstrating that adaptive behaviour drives long-range brain organisation. We therefore suggest that compensatory arm usage maintains symmetrical sensorimotor functional connectivity in one-handers. Since variability in spontaneous functional connectivity in our study reflects ecological behaviour, we propose that inter-hemispheric symmetry, typically observed in resting sensorimotor networks, depends on coordinated motor behaviour in daily life. eLife Sciences Publications 2015-01-06 Article PeerReviewed Hahamy, Avital, Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N., Henderson Slater, David, Malach, Rafael, Johansen-Berg, Heidi and Makin, Tamar R. (2015) Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence. eLife, 4 . e04605/1-e04605/12. ISSN 2050-084X https://elifesciences.org/articles/04605 doi:10.7554/eLife.04605.001 doi:10.7554/eLife.04605.001
spellingShingle Hahamy, Avital
Sotiropoulos, Stamatios N.
Henderson Slater, David
Malach, Rafael
Johansen-Berg, Heidi
Makin, Tamar R.
Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title_full Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title_fullStr Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title_full_unstemmed Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title_short Normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
title_sort normalisation of brain connectivity through compensatory behaviour, despite congenital hand absence
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50951/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50951/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50951/