Jinping Xu, Yuhan Luo, Jiana Zhang, Linchang Zhong, Huiming Liu, Ai Weng, Zhengkun Yang, Yue Zhang, Zilin Ou, Zhicong Yan, Qinxiu Cheng, Xinxin Fan, Xiaodong Zhang, Weixi Zhang, Qingmao Hu, Dong Liang, Kangqiang Peng, Gang Liu
The thalamus is considered a key region in the neuromechanisms of blepharospasm. However, previous studies considered it as a single, homogeneous structure, disregarding potentially useful information about distinct thalamic nuclei. Herein, we aimed to examine (i) whether grey matter volume differs across thalamic subregions/nuclei in patients with blepharospasm and blepharospasm-oromandibular dystonia; (ii) causal relationships among abnormal thalamic nuclei; and (iii) whether these abnormal features can be used as neuroimaging biomarkers to distinguish patients with blepharospasm from blepharospasm-oromandibular dystonia and those with dystonia from healthy controls...
2024: Brain communications