Yin Wenjie, Lin Wei, Li Wenbo, Qian Shusen, Mou Xin
Department of Radiology, Chengdu First People's Hospital, Sichuan, China.
Department of Neurology, Chengdu First People's Hospital, Sichuan, China.
Brain Topogr. 2016 May;29(3):412-8. doi: 10.1007/s10548-016-0474-6. Epub 2016 Feb 11.
Individuals with essential tremor (ET) have postural and active movement abnormalities. Disturbances in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit may contribute to the several motor symptoms of ET. Resting state fMRI provides a valuable, noninvasive tool to study intrinsic activation in the human brain, particularly in the brains of individuals with neuropsychiatric diseases. To investigate the low frequency oscillation features of intrinsic activation in ET in this study, we performed a resting state fMRI analysis in 24 patients with ET and 23 healthy controls. The amplitudes of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) were analyzed. When compared with healthy controls, patients showed significantly enhanced ALFF in the bilateral cerebral cortex, which is related to motor function, including the pre- and post-central gyrus, supplementary motor area and paracentral lobule. The larger ALFF value in the right precentral gyrus is related to a longer duration of tremor. The decreased ALFF in the bilateral cerebellum was also observed in patients. In addition, aberrant ALFF in the right cerebellar tonsil was negatively associated with the duration of tremor. Our findings suggest that abnormalities exist in the intrinsic activation of brain regions in patients with ET. These findings provide noninvasive evidence that supports the hypothesis that the abnormality of intrinsic activity in the cerebello-cerebral cortex pathway could be associated with the motor-related symptoms of ET. Furthermore, the duration of a tremor might relate to the severity of the alterations to the motor system of ET.
特发性震颤（ET）患者存在姿势和主动运动异常。小脑 - 丘脑 - 皮质回路的紊乱可能导致ET的多种运动症状。静息态功能磁共振成像（fMRI）为研究人类大脑的内在激活提供了一种有价值的非侵入性工具，尤其是在患有神经精神疾病的个体大脑中。在本研究中，为了探究ET患者内在激活的低频振荡特征，我们对24例ET患者和23名健康对照者进行了静息态fMRI分析。分析了低频波动幅度（ALFF）。与健康对照相比，患者在与运动功能相关的双侧大脑皮质，包括中央前回和中央后回、辅助运动区和中央旁小叶，显示出显著增强的ALFF。右侧中央前回中较大的ALFF值与震颤持续时间较长有关。在患者中还观察到双侧小脑的ALFF降低。此外，右侧小脑扁桃体的异常ALFF与震颤持续时间呈负相关。我们的研究结果表明，ET患者大脑区域的内在激活存在异常。这些发现提供了非侵入性证据，支持小脑 - 大脑皮质通路内在活动异常可能与ET的运动相关症状有关的假说。此外，震颤的持续时间可能与ET运动系统改变的严重程度有关。
