Ma Qing, Huang Biao, Wang Jinhui, Seger Carol, Yang Wanqun, Li Changhong, Wang Junjing, Feng Jieying, Weng Ling, Jiang Wenjie, Huang Ruiwang
Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2017 Apr;11(2):430-443. doi: 10.1007/s11682-016-9524-7.
Although previous studies reported altered topology of brain functional networks in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), the modular organization of brain functional networks in PD patients remains largely unknown. Using the resting-state functional MRI (R-fMRI) and graph theory, we examined the modular organization of brain functional networks in 32 unmedicated patients with early-to-mid motor stage PD and 31 healthy controls. Compared to the controls, the PD patients tended to show decreased integrity and segregation, both within and between modules. This was inferred by significantly increased intra-modular characteristic path length (L ) within four modules: mPFC, SN, SMN, and FPN, decreased inter-modular functional connectivity (FC) between mPFC and SN, SMN, and VN, and decreased intra-modular clustering in the PD patients. Intra-modular characteristic path length within the mPFC showed significantly positive correlation with general cognitive ability in the PD group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that FC between mPFC and SN had the highest significant accuracy in differentiating the patients from the controls. Our findings may provide new insight in understanding the pathological changes that underlie impairment in cognition and movement in Parkinson's disease.
尽管先前的研究报道了帕金森病（PD）患者脑功能网络拓扑结构的改变，但PD患者脑功能网络的模块化组织在很大程度上仍不清楚。我们使用静息态功能磁共振成像（R-fMRI）和图论，研究了32例处于运动早中期的未用药PD患者和31名健康对照者脑功能网络的模块化组织。与对照组相比，PD患者在模块内和模块间的完整性和分离性均有下降趋势。这是通过四个模块（内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC）、黑质（SN）、辅助运动区（SMN）和额顶叶网络（FPN））内模块内特征路径长度（L）显著增加、mPFC与SN、SMN和腹侧网络（VN）之间的模块间功能连接（FC）降低以及PD患者模块内聚类减少推断出来的。mPFC内的模块内特征路径长度与PD组的一般认知能力呈显著正相关。受试者工作特征（ROC）分析显示，mPFC与SN之间的FC在区分患者与对照方面具有最高的显著准确性。我们的研究结果可能为理解帕金森病认知和运动障碍背后的病理变化提供新的见解。
