Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Medical School, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
PLoS One. 2019 Sep 4;14(9):e0222002. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222002. eCollection 2019.
Parkinson's disease (PD) affects 2-3% of the population over the age of 65 with loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra impacting the functioning of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits. The precise role played by the thalamus is unknown, despite its critical role in the functioning of the cerebral cortex, and the abnormal neuronal activity of the structure in PD. Our objective was to more clearly elucidate how functional connectivity and morphology of the thalamus are impacted in PD (n = 32) compared to Controls (n = 20). To investigate functional connectivity of the thalamus we subdivided the structure into two important regions-of-interest, the first with putative connections to the motor cortices and the second with putative connections to prefrontal cortices. We then investigated potential differences in the size and shape of the thalamus in PD, and how morphology and functional connectivity relate to clinical variables. Our data demonstrate that PD is associated with increases in functional connectivity between motor subdivisions of the thalamus and the supplementary motor area, and between prefrontal thalamic subdivisions and nuclei of the basal ganglia, anterior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, as well as the anterior and paracingulate gyri. These results suggest that PD is associated with increased functional connectivity of subdivisions of the thalamus which may be indicative alterations to basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry.
帕金森病（PD）影响 2-3%的 65 岁以上人群，黑质中的多巴胺能神经元丧失会影响基底节-丘脑皮质回路的功能。尽管丘脑在大脑皮层的功能中起着关键作用，并且在 PD 中该结构的异常神经元活动，但丘脑的确切作用仍不清楚。我们的目标是更清楚地阐明与对照组（n = 20）相比，PD 中丘脑的功能连接和形态如何受到影响（n = 32）。为了研究丘脑的功能连接，我们将结构细分为两个重要的感兴趣区域，第一个与运动皮质的假定连接，第二个与前额皮质的假定连接。然后，我们研究了 PD 中丘脑的大小和形状的潜在差异，以及形态和功能连接与临床变量的关系。我们的数据表明，PD 与丘脑运动亚区与辅助运动区之间以及前额叶丘脑亚区与基底节核、前外侧前额叶皮质、前扣带回和旁扣带回之间的功能连接增加有关。这些结果表明，PD 与丘脑亚区的功能连接增加有关，这可能表明基底节-丘脑皮质回路发生了改变。
