Deans' stroke musings: Lesion-informed connectome diffusion modelling for individualized prediction of post-stroke brain atrophy

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, August 10, 2026

Lesion-informed connectome diffusion modelling for individualized prediction of post-stroke brain atrophy

Predictions don't get you recovered! Where are the protocols that PREVENT BRAIN ATROPHY? You're all fired for massive incompetence!

Lesion-informed connectome diffusion modelling for individualized prediction of post-stroke brain atrophy

Gaolang Gong Beijing Normal University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5788-022X Jing Yang Beijing Normal University Yixin Gao Beijing Normal University Liyuan Yang Tianjin Normal University Yaya Jiang Beijing International Studies University Wan Bin University Hospitals of Genève Şeyma Bayrak Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Xinyu Liang Fudan University Sofie Valk Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Maurizio Corbetta Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova

Posted Date: August 5th, 2026 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9954362/v1

Abstract

Remote brain atrophy after stroke is clinically consequential but difficult to predict at the individual-patient level. Here we developed a lesion-informed connectome diffusion modelling framework to forecast distributed grey matter volume (GMV) atrophy after focal stroke. Using longitudinal MRI data from two stroke cohorts spanning the hyperacute, subacute and chronic stages, we first showed that post-stroke GMV atrophy was more strongly constrained by structural than by functional connectivity. We then initialized network diffusion models with each patient’s lesion map and found that the resulting simulations captured individualized atrophy patterns at 3 and 12 months post-stroke, whereas model performance was weak within the first week after stroke. The model-derived propagation stage was not a simple proxy for chronological time, but varied with lesion topography, lesion size, structural-network topology and the molecular context of lesioned regions. Finally, lesion-derived features enabled out-of sample prediction of individualized atrophy patterns without requiring longitudinal imaging. These findings establish a computational framework for forecasting remote structural degeneration after stroke from early lesion information, with potential utility for patient stratification and individualized monitoring.