Cognitive and linguistic dysfunction after thalamic stroke and recovery process: possible mechanism

Thalamic stroke may result in cognitive and linguistic problems, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Especially, it is still a matter of debate why thalamic aphasia occasionally occurs and then mostly recovers to some degree. We begin with a brief overview of the cognitive dysfunction and aphasia, and then review previous hypotheses of the underlying mechanism. We introduced a unique characteristic of relatively transient “word retrieval difficulty” of patients in acute phase of thalamic stroke. Word retrieval ability involves both executive function and speech production. Furthermore, SMA aphasia and thalamic aphasia may resemble in terms of the rapid recovery, thus suggesting a shared neural system. This ability is attributable to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and inferior frontal cortex (IFG) via the frontal aslant tract (FAT). To explore the possible mechanism, we applied unique hybrid neuroimaging techniques: single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (f-NIRS). SPECT can visualize the brain distribution associated with word retrieval difficulty, cognitive disability or aphasia after thalamic stroke, and f-NIRS focuses on SMA and monitors long-term changes in hemodynamic SMA responses during phonemic verbal task. SPECT yielded common perfusion abnormalities not only in the fronto–parieto–cerebellar–thalamic loop, but also in bilateral brain regions such as SMA, IFG and language-relevant regions. f-NIRS demonstrated that thalamic stroke developed significant word retrieval decline, which was intimately linked to posterior SMA responses. Word retrieval difficulty was rapidly recovered with increased bilateral SMA responses at follow-up NIRS. Together, we propose that the cognitive domain affected by thalamic stroke may be related to the fronto–parieto–cerebellar–thalamic loop, while the linguistic region may be attributable to SMA, IFG and language-related brain areas. Especially, bilateral SMA may play a crucial role in the recovery of word retrieval, and right language-related region, including IFG, angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus may determine recovery from thalamic aphasia.