In this study, we bring together a number of key observations that speak to the relationship between structural damage, functional connectivity and cognitive capacity. First, we found wide-spread functional connectivity alterations throughout the DMN that correlated with the severity of structural damage confined largely to the ipsilateral medial and lateral temporal lobe. In line with our results, previous studies also found that functional connectivity alterations can at least be in part explained by structural damage (Holmes et al., 2013; Voets et al., 2012). Our findings converge with other recent studies indicating that the greater the structural damage to the MTL, the poorer the integration of this region with the DMN particularly in its posterior extent (Voets et al., 2012).
