Are the Effects Resulting from an LPC-Induced Focal Lesion in the White Matter Truly Localised?

Motivation: Inflammation from LPC leakage into the cortex, mechanical stress at the needle entry site, and excessive lesion spread can alter baseline activity and axonal conduction velocity potentially biasing conduction velocity measurements. Goal(s): This study hypothesises that dMRI can detect lesion boundaries and that lesions are not always focal as assumed. Approach: Using dMRI we explore lesion spread, and ROIs surrounding the lesion in both grey and white matter and surrounding the injection sites. Results: No significant changes are observed in the surrounding cortex nor either injection site, however, large variablility is seen in lesion size within the corpus callosum as expected. Impact: This study suggests that no significant response is detected surrounding the LPC injection site nor the surrounding cortex, indicating that this model can be trusted for electrophysiology and expected conduction velocity changes are related only to the LPC-induced lesion area.