The changed functional status of the brain was involved in patients with poststroke aphasia: Coordinate‐based (activation likelihood estimation) meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated the language architecture and neurobiological mechanism underlying poststroke aphasia (PSA), the pathophysiological mechanisms of PSA still remain poorly understood. In addition to a limited number of subjects (<20) tested with different methodologies and stimuli, inconsistent reports of the brain regions involved have been a major factor. Thus, we conducted a meta‐analysis of 12 peer‐reviewed studies of abnormal brain activation regions in PSA patients at rest using activation likelihood estimation (ALE). RESULTS: A meta‐analysis was performed based on 24 experiments with 497 total participants in 12 studies to establish the ALE of regional activation in PSA. Through experiments with PSA patients and healthy controls, we found that hypoactivation in PSA converged on the left superior frontal gyrus and the left parietal postcentral gyrus, whereas there was hyperactivation in the right cerebellar anterior lobe, left fusiform gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, and right subgyral hippocampus. CONCLUSION: Our study verified that dominant and nondominant language networks play roles in the recovery of language function.