Structural and Functional Brain Connectivity in ALS Patients

A multimodal connectomic analysis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis integrates cortical thickness-based structural covariance networks, diffusion MRI tractography, and resting-state and task-based functional MRI. The study employs a 104-node parcellation scheme based on the Desikan-Killiany atlas to examine structure-function coupling in ALS patients and matched controls. It reports preserved global network topology but selective reorganization within motor and interhemispheric pathways.

Use Cases

• Analyze structure-function coupling by correlating diffusion-derived white matter connectivity with resting-state functional MRI organization.
• Compare cortical covariance networks to functional dynamics to assess their weak association in ALS.
• Examine graph-theoretical metrics like efficiency and small-worldness across the 104-node parcellation to identify selective network reorganization.
• Investigate the enhancement of structure-function coupling during task performance using task-based functional MRI data.

Strengths

• Multimodal data integration includes structural covariance, diffusion MRI, and two types of functional MRI.
• Analysis employs a detailed 104-node brain parcellation scheme for network construction.
• Dataset is openly shared under a CC BY 4.0 license, facilitating reuse.

Limitations

• Data is presented as a 98.4 KB PDF report, not as raw tabular or imaging data files.
• Sample size of ALS patients and controls is not specified in the provided description.
• The analysis focuses on a specific 104-node atlas, limiting generalizability to other parcellation schemes.

Provenance

Source

Vijay Renga via figshare.

Collection Method

Multimodal connectomic analysis integrating cortical thickness-based structural covariance networks, diffusion MRI tractography, and resting-state and task-based functional MRI.

Freshness

Last updated March 25, 2026.