Resting state fMRI brain mapping in pediatric supratentorial brain tumors

Background: Functional mapping of eloquent brain areas is crucial for preoperative planning in patients with brain tumors. Resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) allows the localization of functional brain areas without the need for task performance, making it well-suited for the pediatric population. In this study the independent component analysis (ICA) rs-fMRI functional mapping results are reported in a group of 22 pediatric patients with supratentorial brain tumors. Additionally, the functional connectivity (FC) maps of the sensori-motor network (SMN) obtained using ICA and seed-based analysis (SBA) are compared. Results: Different resting state networks (RSNs) were extracted using ICA with varying levels of sensitivity, notably, the SMN was identified in 100% of patients, followed by the Default mode network (DMN) (91%) and Language networks (80%). Additionally, FC maps of the SMN extracted by SBA were more extensive (mean volume = 25,288.36 mm(3), standard deviation = 13,364.36 mm(3)) than those found on ICA (mean volume = 13,403.27 mm(3), standard deviation = 9755.661 mm(3)). This was confirmed by statistical analysis using a Wilcoxon signed rank t test at p < 0.01. Conclusions: Results clearly demonstrate the successful applicability of rs-fMRI for localizing different functional brain networks in the preoperative assessment of brain areas, and thus represent a further step in the integration of computational radiology research in a clinical setting.