BACKGROUND: There are gaps in our neurobiological understanding of functional movement disorder (FMD). OBJECTIVES: We investigated gray matter volumetric profiles in FMD, and related findings to resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) profiles using Human Connectome Project data. METHODS: Volumetric differences between 53 FMD patients and 50 controls were examined, as well as relationships between individual differences in FMD symptom severity and volumetric profiles. Atrophy network mapping was also used to probe whether FMD-related structural alterations preferentially impacted brain areas with dense rsFC. RESULTS: Compared to controls without neurological comorbidities (albeit with mild depression and anxiety as a group), the FMD cohort did not show any volumetric differences. Across patients with FMD, individual differences in symptom severity negatively correlated with right supramarginal and bilateral superior temporal gyri volumes. These findings remained significant adjusting for FMD subtype or antidepressant use, but did not remain statistically significant adjusting for depression and anxiety scores. Symptom severity-related structural alterations mapped onto regions with dense rsFC-identifying several disease epicenters in default mode, ventral attention, and salience networks. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports that FMD is a multinetwork disorder with an important role for the temporoparietal junction and its related connectivity in the pathophysiology of this condition. More research is needed to explore the intersection of functional neurological symptoms and mood.

Athinoula A Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Charlestown Massachusetts USA

Department of Neurology and Center of Clinical Neuroscience Charles University Prague 1st Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital Prague Czech Republic

Department of Psychiatry Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University and University Hospital Brno Brno Czech Republic

Division of Neuropsychiatry Department of Psychiatry Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston Massachusetts USA

Functional Neurological Disorder Unit Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Division Department of Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston Massachusetts USA

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