Zhang Chao, Wu Chen, Zhang Haiyan, Dou Weiqiang, Li Weidong, Sami Muhammad Umair, Xu Kai
Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, PR China.
Department of Radiology, Affiliated 2 Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, PR China.
Neuroscience. 2020 Aug 21;442:228-236. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.07.008. Epub 2020 Jul 11.
The basal nucleus of Meynert (BNM) shows structural abnormalities in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI). However, it is yet unknown whether functional connectivity (FC) in the BNM (BNM-FC) is altered in patients with PD-MCI. Therefore, in this study, we compared the BNM-FC of patients with PD-MCI and PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC), to evaluate the relationship between the observed differences of BNM-FC and neuropsychological test scores. Three patient groups, namely PD-MCI, PD-NC, and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 22 each) including were recruited for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning and neuropsychological assessment. Analysis of covariance was used to assess the inter-group differences. The relationships between BNM-FC and results of cognitive tests were evaluated by partial correlation analysis. Multivariate pattern analysis was used to test whether PD-MCI can be distinguished from PD-NC based on the BNM-FC. Classifier performance was assessed through permutation testing. Compared to PD-NC and HCs, PD-MCI showed reduced BNM-FC in the right superior parietal lobe (SPL) and the right postcentral gyrus. Furthermore, a positive correlation was observed between BNM-FC and the clock copying test (CLOX)/auditory verbal learning test (AVLT) immediate recall scores. We found that 86.36% subjects were correctly classified based on the BNM-FC using the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method, with a sensitivity of 90.91% and specificity of 81.82%. Our study provides new insights into the neural basis of cognitive dysfunction in PD patients. We also found that BNM-FC can be an effective feature to distinguish PD-MCI from PD-NC.
迈内特基底核（BNM）在帕金森病伴轻度认知障碍（PD-MCI）中表现出结构异常。然而，PD-MCI患者的BNM功能连接（BNM-FC）是否改变尚不清楚。因此，在本研究中，我们比较了PD-MCI患者和认知正常的帕金森病患者（PD-NC）的BNM-FC，以评估观察到的BNM-FC差异与神经心理学测试分数之间的关系。招募了三个患者组，即PD-MCI组、PD-NC组和健康对照组（HCs）（每组n = 22），进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描和神经心理学评估。采用协方差分析评估组间差异。通过偏相关分析评估BNM-FC与认知测试结果之间的关系。使用多变量模式分析来测试是否可以基于BNM-FC将PD-MCI与PD-NC区分开来。通过置换检验评估分类器性能。与PD-NC组和HCs组相比，PD-MCI组右侧顶上叶（SPL）和右侧中央后回的BNM-FC降低。此外，观察到BNM-FC与时钟临摹测试（CLOX）/听觉言语学习测试（AVLT）即时回忆分数之间存在正相关。我们发现，使用留一法交叉验证（LOOCV）方法，基于BNM-FC可正确分类86.36%的受试者，灵敏度为90.91%，特异度为81.82%。我们的研究为PD患者认知功能障碍的神经基础提供了新的见解。我们还发现，BNM-FC可以作为区分PD-MCI和PD-NC的有效特征。
