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Structural and Functional Changes in the Brain after Surgically Repaired Median Nerve Injury Per Nordmark Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Physiology Section Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Section for Hand and Plastic Surgery Umeå University, Umeå 2019 Copyright © 2019 Per Nordmark Responsible publisher under Swedish law: the Dean of the Medical Faculty This work is protected by the Swedish Copyright Legislation (Act 1960:729) Dissertation for PhD ISBN: 978-91-7855-072-2 ISSN: 0346-6612 New Series No 2035 Electronic version available at: http://umu.diva-portal.org/ Printed by: Cityprint i Norra AB, Umeå SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden Figures 1-8: Illustrations by Per Nordmark Image on p. 1: Zoom in on Adam and Gods hands from ‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo Buonarroti, fresco in the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel – (private photograph). N.B. A peculiar interpretation of this fresco’s depiction of God is that suggested by Frank Lynn Meshberger; that the outlines of God and the persons surrounding him make up the contour of the midsagittal plane of a brain and that this was a tribute by Michelangelo to the brain and the intellect (Meshberger, 1990). Image on p. 39: Studies of arms and hands, 1513-1520, Michelangelo (Public domain) Image on p. 43: Studies of folded hands, 1511-1512, Michelangelo (Public domain) Image on p. 55: Scheme for the Sistine chapel ceiling; studies of arms, 1508, Michelangelo (Public domain) Image on p. 61: Anatomical studies of arms and shoulders, 1513-1520, Michelangelo (Public domain) Image on p. 77: Studies of an outstretched arm for the fresco ‘The Drunkenness of Noah’ in the Sistine Chapel, 1508-9, Michelangelo (Public domain) To my family Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................ iii Abbreviations ................................................................................... iv Original Papers ................................................................................. v Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 General introduction ....................................................................................................... 2 Short historical review ..................................................................................................... 4 History of peripheral nerve injuries and their treatment ...................................... 4 Historical aspects on understanding the function of the brain .............................. 8 Normal hand function .................................................................................................... 11 Peripheral sensory mechanisms supporting manual dexterity ............................ 12 Cortical brain areas associated with somatosensory and multisensory processing ................................................................................................................................... 16 Cortical motor areas ............................................................................................... 23 Prefrontal cortex ..................................................................................................... 26 Hand function after peripheral nerve injury ................................................................ 29 Classification of nerve injuries ............................................................................... 29 Reinnervation after surgical repair ........................................................................ 31 Median nerve injury................................................................................................ 32 CNS changes after peripheral nerve injury ................................................................... 34 Findings in monkeys ............................................................................................... 34 Findings in humans ................................................................................................. 36 Aims of projects within this Thesis ................................................. 39 Specific Aims .................................................................................................................. 40 Materials and Methods ................................................................... 43 Brief description of methodology and rationale for each paper .................................. 44 Paper I ...................................................................................................................... 44 Paper II .................................................................................................................... 45 Paper III ................................................................................................................... 45 Material ...........................................................................................................................47 Participants, inclusion and exclusion criteria ........................................................47 Methods ......................................................................................................................... 48 Magnetic Resonance Imaging – a brief description ............................................. 48 Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging– a brief description ........................... 49 Voxel-Based Morphometry – a brief description .................................................. 50 Novel apparatus for tactile stimulations in the MRI-scanner ............................. 50 Data acquisition and analysis ................................................................................ 50 Ethical considerations ....................................................................................................53 Results .............................................................................................55 Summary of Results presented in Paper I .................................................................... 56 Summary of Results presented in Paper II .................................................................... 57 Summary of Results presented in Paper III ................................................................. 58 i Discussion ........................................................................................ 61 Paper I ...................................................................................................................... 63 Paper II .................................................................................................................... 65 Paper III ................................................................................................................... 66 Synthesis ........................................................................................................................ 69 Reliability ....................................................................................................................... 70 Statistical choices and issues ..........................................................................................72 Future directions ............................................................................................................74 Conclusions ...................................................................................... 77 Acknowledgements ..........................................................................79 References ...................................................................................... 80 ii Abstract Despite the best available surgical repair, traumatic median nerve injury within the forearm typically causes lifelong impairment in hand function. This stems from an inadequate reinnervation of the nerves supporting sensory functions of the thumb, index and long finger, and of nerves supplying intrinsic hand muscles. This thesis examines whether median nerve injuries can cause structural and functional changes in the brain. Understanding such changes can help the development of new treatments for improved recovery of hand function. The first study introduces a novel apparatus and paradigm for examining tactile neural processing with fMRI under well-controlled behavioral conditions. The scientific issue challenged was whether, in healthy adults, different cortical areas could be involved in processing tactile stimuli depending on their temporal frequency content. In a threshold-tracking paradigm, the participants’ task was to detect oscillatory mechanical stimulations of various frequencies delivered to the tip of either left or right middle finger. Regardless of stimulated hand, tactile detection of audible frequencies (20 and 100 Hz) engaged the left auditory cortex while detection of slow object displacements (3 Hz) engaged visual cortex. These results corroborate and advance the metamodal theory of brain function, which posits that brain areas can contribute to sensory processing by performing specific computations – those for which they are specialized – regardless of input modality. The second and third studies concern structural and functional changes in the brain of adults with one reinnervated hand after an injury transecting the median nerve in the forearm. Healthy individuals matched for sex, handedness and age served as controls. Irrespective of side of injury (left or right), voxel-based morphometry applied on T1 MR-images revealed reductions of gray matter in the left ventral and right dorsal premotor cortex,