Comparative fMRI and MEG localization of cortical sensorimotor function: Bimodal mapping supports motor area reorganization in glioma patients

Abstract

Introduction Preoperative functional mapping in the vicinity of brain lesion is of high importance for avoiding complications in surgical management. However, space-occupying lesions may lead to functional reorganization or decreased BOLD activity. Methods Therefore in 13 patients with cerebral gliomas or brain arterio-venous malformations/hemangioma fMRI- and MEG-based cortical localizations of motor and somatosensory cortical activation pattern were compared in order to investigate their congruency. Results Localization of cortical sensorimotor areas with fMRI and MEG showed good congruency with a mean spatial distance of around 10 mm, with differences depending on the localization method. The smallest mean differences for the centroids were found for MEF with MNE 8 mm and SEF with sLORETA 8 mm. Primary motor area (M1) reorganization was found in 5 of 12 patients in fMRI and confirmed with MEG data. In these 5 patients with M1-reorgani-zation the distance between the border of the fMRI-based cortical M1-localization and the tumor border on T1w MR images varied between 0–4 mm, which was significant (P = 0.025) different to the distance in glioma patients without M1-reorganization (5–26 mm). Conclusion Our multimodal preoperative mapping approach combining fMRI and MEG reveals a high degree of spatial congruence and provided high evidence for the presence of motor cortex reorganization.