Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, 305 Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210002, China.
Department of Gastroenterology, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, 305 Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210002, China.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2017 Dec;11(6):1812-1822. doi: 10.1007/s11682-016-9653-z.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder resulting from a dysregulation of the brain-gut axis. However, its exact neural substrate still remains unclear. This study investigated the changes of intrinsic whole brain functional connectivity pattern in IBS using functional connectivity density (FCD). We acquired resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from thirty-two IBS patients and thirty-two healthy controls. Functional connectivity density, a data-driven algorithm, was used to compute the long-range and short-range FCD values for each voxel in the brain of each subject, implying the amount of distant and local functional connections of cortical hubs. The FCD maps were compared between IBS patients and healthy controls. Pearson correlations analysis was also performed between abnormal FCD values and clinical/psychometric scores in patients. Compared to healthy controls, IBS patients showed concurrently decreased long- and short-range FCD in bilateral anterior midcingulate cortices (aMCC) and inferior parietal lobules (IPL), and decreased long-range FCD in right anterior insula, and decreased short-range FCD in bilateral prefrontal cortices, subgenual anterior cingulate cortices and caudates. IBS patients also had concurrently increased long- and short-range FCD mainly in primary sensorimotor cortices, as well as increased long-range FCD in right supplementary motor area and increased short-range FCD in occipital lobe. In addition, some regions with altered FCD showed abnormal functional connectivity in brain regions involved in pain matrix of IBS patients. Furthermore, the abnormal FCD values in right anterior insula and left caudate showed significant correlation with severity of symptoms and disease duration of IBS patients respectively. In conclusion, patients with IBS have widely disrupted FCD, which decreased in brain regions involved in homeostatic afferent network, emotional arouse, and cognitive regulation, while increased in regions associated with sensorimotor modulation. And the observed functional connectivity alterations unveiled complicated working patterns of pain matrix in IBS patients. This study may provide us with new insight into the underlying brain network topology of IBS.
肠易激综合征(IBS)是一种常见的功能性胃肠疾病,源于脑-肠轴的失调。然而,其确切的神经基础仍不清楚。本研究使用功能连接密度(FCD)来研究 IBS 患者全脑内在功能连接模式的变化。我们从 32 名 IBS 患者和 32 名健康对照者中获得了静息状态功能磁共振成像(rs-fMRI)数据。功能连接密度是一种数据驱动的算法,用于计算每个被试大脑中每个体素的远距离和短程 FCD 值,提示皮质中枢的远距离和局部功能连接量。将 IBS 患者与健康对照者的 FCD 图谱进行比较。还对患者异常 FCD 值与临床/心理计量学评分之间进行了 Pearson 相关性分析。与健康对照组相比,IBS 患者双侧前扣带回中部(aMCC)和下顶叶(IPL)的长程和短程 FCD 同时降低,右侧前岛叶的长程 FCD 降低,双侧前额叶皮质、前扣带回皮质下区和尾状核的短程 FCD 降低。IBS 患者还同时表现出初级感觉运动皮质的长程和短程 FCD 增加,右侧辅助运动区的长程 FCD 增加,枕叶的短程 FCD 增加。此外,一些 FCD 改变的区域显示出与 IBS 患者疼痛矩阵相关的脑区异常功能连接。此外,右侧前岛叶和左侧尾状核的异常 FCD 值与 IBS 患者症状严重程度和疾病持续时间呈显著相关。总之,IBS 患者的 FCD 广泛紊乱,与自主传入网络、情绪唤醒和认知调节相关的脑区 FCD 降低,而与感觉运动调节相关的脑区 FCD 增加。观察到的功能连接改变揭示了 IBS 患者疼痛矩阵的复杂工作模式。本研究可能为我们提供了 IBS 潜在脑网络拓扑结构的新见解。
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