Differences of cortical activation pattern between cortical and corona radiata infarct.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the differences of cortical activation pattern between patients with cortex (CO) infarct and those with corona radiata (CR) infarct. Twenty chronic patients with cerebral infarct and 11 normal subjects were recruited. The patients were classified into two groups according to infarct location: CO and CR group. After functional MRI was performed during the motor task of hand grasp-release movements, the hand motor function was assessed. The CO group tended to be activated on the contralateral primary sensori-motor cortex, whereas the CR group largely showed activation of the bilateral primary sensori-motor cortex. Namely, there was significantly more lateralized activation pattern of primary sensori-motor cortex in the CO group than in the CR group. Additionally, the CO group had better hand motor function than the CR group. Our results suggest that the motor recovery mechanism vary according to the lesion location between CO and CR infarct, indicating that the adaptive cortical reorganization proceeds under different patterns according to the lesion location.