Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Bldg. 500, Mail Stop F546, 13001 East 17th Place, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Neuroimage. 2012 Oct 15;63(1):73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.06.079. Epub 2012 Jul 14.
Despite the use of cholinergic therapies in Alzheimer's disease and the development of cholinergic strategies for schizophrenia, relatively little is known about how the system modulates the connectivity and structure of large-scale brain networks. To better understand how nicotinic cholinergic systems alter these networks, this study examined the effects of nicotine on measures of whole-brain network communication efficiency. Resting state fMRI was acquired from fifteen healthy subjects before and after the application of nicotine or placebo transdermal patches in a single blind, crossover design. Data, which were previously examined for default network activity, were analyzed with network topology techniques to measure changes in the communication efficiency of whole-brain networks. Nicotine significantly increased local efficiency, a parameter that estimates the network's tolerance to local errors in communication. Nicotine also significantly enhanced the regional efficiency of limbic and paralimbic areas of the brain, areas which are especially altered in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. These changes in network topology may be one mechanism by which cholinergic therapies improve brain function.
尽管在阿尔茨海默病中使用了胆碱能疗法，并为精神分裂症开发了胆碱能策略，但对于该系统如何调节大脑的大规模网络的连接和结构，我们知之甚少。为了更好地了解烟碱型胆碱能系统如何改变这些网络，本研究探讨了尼古丁对全脑网络通信效率的影响。在一项单盲交叉设计中，15 名健康受试者在应用尼古丁或安慰剂透皮贴剂前后接受了静息态 fMRI 检查。此前，这些数据被用于检测默认网络活动，现在使用网络拓扑技术进行分析，以测量全脑网络通信效率的变化。尼古丁显著增加了局部效率，该参数可估计网络对通信中局部错误的容忍度。尼古丁还显著提高了大脑边缘和边缘区的区域效率，这些区域在阿尔茨海默病和精神分裂症等疾病中特别改变。这些网络拓扑结构的变化可能是胆碱能疗法改善大脑功能的一种机制。
