Network Analysis on Interpreting Atypical Language Reorganization Case Caused by Brain Tumor Growth

Neuroplasticity has been observed in many clinical cases such as
fully or partially functional recovery from stroke, traumatic injury or
tumor growth. However, not much we understand the mechanism
underlying this ”rewiring” of the brain network. Here, we apply ad-
vanced graphical theoretical methods to analyze a language reorgani-
zation case induced by slowly growing tumor. The language ability of
this patient (57 year-old, right-handed) was not affected by the inva-
sion of the lesion (a low-grade frontal-temporal insular glioma) to the
expected Broca’s area located at the left frontal lobe. Based on the
activation map from functional Magnetic Resonant Imaging (MRI),
we established a brain tumor model, which revealed strong connec-
tions in between the middle frontal and frontal anterior regions with
the Broca’s area on the mirrored hemisphere and as well as the Wer-
nicke’s area on the left. However, the newly emerged Broca’s area has
no connections to the Wernicke’s area. This indicates that the middle
frontal and frontal anterior regions might be the driven force to trans-
fer Broca’s area from one hemisphere to the other. In the meanwhile,
they took the intermediate role to communicate in between the newly
emerged Broca’s area and the Wernicke’s area.