Altered Activation in Cerebellum Contralateral to Unilateral Thalamotomy May Mediate Tremor Suppression in Parkinson’s Disease: A Short-Term Regional Homogeneity fMRI Study

BACKGROUND: Ventral intermediate nucleus thalamotomy is an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease tremor. However, its mechanism is still unclear. PURPOSE: We used resting-state fMRI to investigate short-term ReHo changes after unilateral thalamotomy in tremor-dominant PD, and to speculate about its possible mechanism on tremor suppression. METHODS: 26 patients and 31 healthy subjects (HS) were recruited. Patients were divided into two groups according to right- (rPD) and left-side (lPD) thalamotomy. Tremor was assessed using the 7-item scale from the Unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale motor score (mUPDRS). Patients were scanned using resting state fMRI after 12h withdrawal of medication, both preoperatively (PD(pre)) and 7- day postoperatively (PD(post)), whereas healthy subjects were scanned once. The regions associated with tremor and altered ReHo due to thalamic ablation were examined. RESULTS: The impact of unilateral VIM thalamotomy was characterized in the frontal, parietal, temporal regions, basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum. Compared with PD(pre), significantly reduced ReHo was found in the left cerebellum in patients with rPD(post), and slightly decreased ReHo in the cerebellum vermis in patients with lPD(post), which was significantly higher than HS. We demonstrated a positive correlation between the ReHo values in the cerebellum (in rPD, peak coordinate [-12, -54, -21], R = 0.64, P = 0.0025, and peak coordinate [-9, -54, -18], R = 0.71, P = 0.0025; in lPD, peak coordinate [3, -45, -15], R = 0.71, P = 0.004) in the pre-surgical condition, changes of ReHo induced by thalamotomy (in rPD, R = 0.63, P = 0.021, R = 0.6, P = 0.009; in lPD, R = 0.58, P = 0.028) and tremor scores contralateral to the surgical side, respectively. CONCLUSION: The specific area that may be associated with PD tremor and altered ReHo due to thalamic ablation is the cerebellum. The neural basis underlying thalamotomy is complex; cerebellum involvement is far beyond cerebello-thalamic tract breakage.