Decreased Distance between Representation Sites of Distinct Facial Movements in Facial Synkinesis-A Task fMRI Study

作者：Wang, Yin; Yang, Liqin; Wang, Wei-wei; Ding, Wei^*; Liu, Han-qiu^*

来源：Neuroscience, 2019, 397: 12-17.

DOI：10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.11.036

• facial synkinesis
• functional magnetic resonance imaging
• plasticity
• cortical representation
• facial movement
• mapping

This study aimed to investigate the cortical functional alterations in patients with unilateral facial synkinesis using the task-designed functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fourteen unilateral synkinesis followed by peripheral facial nerve palsy patients and eighteen healthy adults were recruited in this study. Four facial motor tasks, i.e. left/right blinking and left/right smiling, were performed by each subject during the scans. Based on the activation maps, the spatial distance between the representation sites in the contralateral pre-/post-central gyrus of left or right blinking and smiling tasks (i.e. left/right B-S-distance) were calculated. Patients with unilateral facial synkinesis showed decreased B-S-distances during blinking and smiling tasks on the affected half face (9.68 +/- 3.92 mm) compared to both average distances in healthy controls (14.95 +/- 5.55 mm; p = 0.002) and unaffected half face tasks in patients (16.19 +/- 7.87 mm; p = 0.011). These findings demonstrated cortical reorganization in facial synkinesis and suggested a conceivable mechanism corresponding to the simultaneous facial movement. This potentially provides a new modulation target for preventive, therapeutic and rehabilitative maneuver of this disease.

• 出版日期2019-1-15
• 单位复旦大学; 上海交通大学; 河北医科大学