Reorganization of functional networks in squirrel monkey brain after thalamic injury and their relations to task-specific behaviors

Resting state fMRI was used to assess whole brain functional networks before and after a targeted, unilateral lesion in the hand and arm representation of the ventroposterior lateral nucleus of the thalamus of squirrel monkeys. Using Independent Component Analysis, the overall whole brain resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) dropped after injury but slowly recovered. The trajectory of network changes corresponded well with quantitative metrics of animal performance on a behavioral task using the affected hand. Some functional networks showed reductions in connectivity post injury followed by recoveries while others reflected compensatory increases that began in the first week after injury.