A caudate-centered network for alexithymia derived from patients with brain tumors

Higher preoperative Toronto Alexithymia Scale scores in 45 glioma patients are linked to lesions whose connectivity peaks in the right caudate head (FWE-corrected p < 0.05).

• Why it matters: Alexithymia’s neural basis is unclear because lesion effects are reported across disparate brain locations, limiting a unified circuit-level explanation.
• What they did: Using lesion network mapping in a neurosurgical cohort of 45 glioma patients, the study computed each lesion’s connectivity to the rest of the brain via a normative connectome (n = 1,000) and tested links to Toronto Alexithymia Scale scores with permutation testing.
• The result: The lesion-associated connectivity converged on a caudate-centered network including bilateral caudate heads and anterior cingulate cortex, and difficulty identifying feelings localized to this network; it also matched an independent gray matter volume meta-analysis (13 of 14 coordinates positive; p = 0.0004).

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.