TY - JOUR
T1 - Correlations between Dual-Pathway White Matter Alterations and Language Impairment in Patients with Aphasia
T2 - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
AU - Zhang, Jie
AU - Zhong, Shuchang
AU - Zhou, Liang
AU - Yu, Yamei
AU - Tan, Xufei
AU - Wu, Min
AU - Sun, Peng
AU - Zhang, Wei
AU - Li, Juebao
AU - Cheng, Ruidong
AU - Wu, Yanfei
AU - Yu, Yanmei
AU - Ye, Xiangming
AU - Luo, Benyan
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of P. R. China (No. 81902278), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. LGF20H170011), and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Zhejiang Province, P. R. China (2017C03011).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - While converging evidence suggests linguistic roles of white matter tracts, detailed associations between white matter alterations of dual pathways and language abilities remain unknown in aphasic patients. We aimed to verify language functions of dual-pathway tracts from specific domains and investigate the influence of moderators. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched for studies published between January 1, 1985 and March 17, 2019. A meta-analysis of 46 studies including 1353 aphasic patients was performed by pooling correlation coefficients between linguistic domains and diffusion metrics of dual-pathway tracts. Among these tracts, the fractional anisotropy (FA) value of the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus predominated across most linguistic aspects, showing the strongest correlations with global severity, comprehension, naming and reading ability. The left uncinate fasciculus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus also showed significant FA - comprehension correlations. For syntactic processing, FA values of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus and arcuate fasciculus showed significant positive correlations. Meta-regression revealed no influence of etiology on FA - language correlations, while sex had a moderating effect on the FA - comprehension correlation of the arcuate fasciculus, and age influenced the FA - naming correlation in the superior longitudinal fasciculus. In conclusion, multifunctional characteristics of tracts were revealed in aphasic patients, including broad linguistic associations of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and repetition and syntactic involvement of the arcuate fasciculus. Language associations of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus were clarified regarding comprehension subdomains. The insignificant moderating effect of the etiology indicates damage of dual pathways is the common neural mechanism, while sex and age influence the correlation with comprehension and naming ability, respectively, in specific tracts.
AB - While converging evidence suggests linguistic roles of white matter tracts, detailed associations between white matter alterations of dual pathways and language abilities remain unknown in aphasic patients. We aimed to verify language functions of dual-pathway tracts from specific domains and investigate the influence of moderators. PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched for studies published between January 1, 1985 and March 17, 2019. A meta-analysis of 46 studies including 1353 aphasic patients was performed by pooling correlation coefficients between linguistic domains and diffusion metrics of dual-pathway tracts. Among these tracts, the fractional anisotropy (FA) value of the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus predominated across most linguistic aspects, showing the strongest correlations with global severity, comprehension, naming and reading ability. The left uncinate fasciculus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus also showed significant FA - comprehension correlations. For syntactic processing, FA values of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus and arcuate fasciculus showed significant positive correlations. Meta-regression revealed no influence of etiology on FA - language correlations, while sex had a moderating effect on the FA - comprehension correlation of the arcuate fasciculus, and age influenced the FA - naming correlation in the superior longitudinal fasciculus. In conclusion, multifunctional characteristics of tracts were revealed in aphasic patients, including broad linguistic associations of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and repetition and syntactic involvement of the arcuate fasciculus. Language associations of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and uncinate fasciculus were clarified regarding comprehension subdomains. The insignificant moderating effect of the etiology indicates damage of dual pathways is the common neural mechanism, while sex and age influence the correlation with comprehension and naming ability, respectively, in specific tracts.
KW - Aphasia
KW - Diffusion tensor imaging
KW - Dual pathway
KW - White matter
KW - ARCUATE FASCICULUS
KW - LONGITUDINAL FASCICLE
KW - CONNECTIONS
KW - ORGANIZATION
KW - VENTRAL STREAM
KW - TRACTOGRAPHY
KW - IN-VIVO
KW - DIFFUSION
KW - BRAIN
KW - DORSAL
U2 - 10.1007/s11065-021-09482-8
DO - 10.1007/s11065-021-09482-8
M3 - (Systematic) Review article
C2 - 33656701
SN - 1040-7308
VL - 31
SP - 402
EP - 418
JO - Neuropsychology Review
JF - Neuropsychology Review
IS - 3
ER -