logy & N ro eu u r e o N p h f Journal of Neurology & y o s l i a o l n o r Allen and Epps, J Neurol Neurophysiol 2017, 8:6 g u y o J Neurophysiology DOI: 10.4172/2155-9562.1000454 ISSN: 2155-9562 Review Article Open Access Neurovascular Coupling: A Unifying Theory for Post-Concussion Syndrome Treatment and Functional Neuroimaging Epps CT1* and Allen MD1,2 1Cognitive FX, Provo, UT, USA 2Notus Neuropsychological Imaging, Orem, UT, USA *Corresponding author: Dr. Allen MD, Cognitive FX, Provo, 280 West River Park Drive, Suite 110, Provo, Utah 84604, USA, Tel: 3853758590; Fax: 8885111397; Email:
[email protected] Received date: November 28, 2017; Accepted date: December 21, 2017; Published date: December 24, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Epps CT, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) occurs in a significant percentage of concussion patients and is defined as having a history of traumatic brain injury with persistence of three or more symptoms. Standard structural clinical neuroimaging studies show no abnormal findings for the majority of PCS patients as opposed to functional MRI, which often reveals irregularities in the blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal. This suggests that dysregulation of neurovascular coupling, which causes abnormal BOLD signals, plays a significant role in PCS pathology. However, compared to the pathophysiologic mechanisms occurring in acute concussion, the underlying neuropathophysiology of chronic concussive sequelaeor PCS is less understood, though becoming clearer with emerging research.