Functional neuroimaging at different disease stages reveals distinct phases of neuroplastic changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving upper and lower motor neurons with a progressive limb and/or bulbar muscular weakness and wasting. A suitable method to gain insight to the dynamics of neurodegeneration and possible compensatory processes is functional imaging. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed increased activation in ALS patients but have not analyzed fMRI changes in relation to disease stage. To assess the time course of changes in fMRI patterns and their potential contribution to the understanding of ALS patho…