Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The study of patients after glioma resection offers a unique opportunity to investigate brain reorganization. It is currently unknown how the whole-brain connectomic profile evolves longitudinally after surgical resection of a glioma and how this may be associated with tumor characteristics and cognitive outcome. In this longitudinal study, we investigate the impact of tumor lateralization and grade on functional connectivity (FC) in highly connected networks, or hubs, and cognitive performance. Twenty-eight patients (17 high-grade, 11 low-grade gliomas) underwent longitudinal pre/post-surgery resting-state fMRI scans and neuropsychological assessments (73 total measures). FC matrices were constructed considering as functional <jats:italic>hubs</jats:italic> the default mode (DMN) and fronto-parietal networks. <jats:italic>No-hubs</jats:italic> included primary sensory functional networks and any other <jats:italic>no-hubs</jats:italic> nodes. Both tumor hemisphere and grade affected brain reorganization post-resection. In right-hemisphere tumor patients, regardless of grade and relative to left-hemisphere gliomas, FC increased longitudinally after the intervention, both in terms of FC within <jats:italic>hubs</jats:italic> (p<jats:sub>hubs</jats:sub> = 0.0004) and FC between hubs and no-hubs (p<jats:sub>hubs-no-hubs</jats:sub> = 0.005). Regardless of tumor side, only lower-grade gliomas showed longitudinal FC increases relative to high-grade tumors within a precise <jats:italic>hub</jats:italic> network, the DMN. The neurocognitive profile was longitudinally associated with spatial features of the connectome, mainly within the DMN. We provide evidence that clinical glioma features, such as lateralization and grade, affect post-surgical longitudinal functional reorganization and cognitive recovery. The data suggest a possible role of the DMN in supporting cognition, providing useful information for prognostic prediction and surgical planning.</jats:p>