Cortical and Subcortical Structural Plasticity Associated with the Glioma Volumes in Patients with Cerebral Gliomas Revealed by Surface-Based Morphometry

Postlesional plasticity has been identified in patients with cerebral gliomas by inducing a large functional reshaping of brain networks. Although numerous non-invasive functional neuroimaging methods have extensively investigated the mechanisms of this functional redistribution in patients with cerebral gliomas, little effort has been made to investigate the structural plasticity of cortical and subcortical structures associated with the glioma volume. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the contralateral cortical and subcortical structures are able to actively reorganize by themselves in these patients. The compensation mechanism following contralateral cortical and subcortical structural plasticity is considered. We adopted the surface-based morphometry to investigate the difference of cortical and subcortical gray matter (GM) volumes in a cohort of 14 healthy controls and 13 patients with left-hemisphere cerebral gliomas [including 1 patients with World Health Organization (WHO I), 8 WHO II, and 4 WHO III]. The glioma volume ranges from 5.1633 to 208.165 cm2. Compared to healthy controls, we found significantly increased GM volume of the right cuneus and the left thalamus, as well as a trend toward enlargement in the right globus pallidus in patients with cerebral gliomas. Moreover, the GM volumes of these regions were positively correlated with the glioma volumes of the patients. These results provide evidence of cortical and subcortical enlargement, suggesting the usefulness of surface-based morphometry to investigate the structural plasticity. Moreover, the structural plasticity might be acted as the compensation mechanism to better fulfill its functions in patients with cerebral gliomas as the gliomas get larger.