Tri-Institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2021 Jan;42(1):80-94. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25205. Epub 2020 Sep 23.
The dynamics of the human brain span multiple spatial scales, from connectivity associated with a specific region/network to the global organization, each representing different brain mechanisms. Yet brain reconfigurations at different spatial scales are seldom explored and whether they are associated with the neural aspects of brain disorders is far from understood. In this study, we introduced a dynamic measure called step-wise functional network reconfiguration (sFNR) to characterize how brain configuration rewires at different spatial scales. We applied sFNR to two independent datasets, one includes 160 healthy controls (HCs) and 151 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and the other one includes 314 HCs and 255 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We found that both SZ and ASD have increased whole-brain sFNR and sFNR between cerebellar and subcortical/sensorimotor domains. At the ICN level, the abnormalities in SZ are mainly located in ICNs within subcortical, sensory, and cerebellar domains, while the abnormalities in ASD are more widespread across domains. Interestingly, the overlap SZ-ASD abnormality in sFNR between cerebellar and sensorimotor domains was correlated with the reasoning-problem-solving performance in SZ (r = -.1652, p = .0058) as well as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule in ASD (r = .1853, p = .0077). Our findings suggest that dynamic reconfiguration deficits may represent a key intersecting point for SZ and ASD. The investigation of brain dynamics at different spatial scales can provide comprehensive insights into the functional reconfiguration, which might advance our knowledge of cognitive decline and other pathophysiology in brain disorders.
人类大脑的动态跨越多个空间尺度，从与特定区域/网络相关的连接到全局组织，每个尺度都代表着不同的大脑机制。然而，不同空间尺度上的大脑重新配置很少被探索，并且它们是否与大脑疾病的神经方面有关还远未被理解。在这项研究中，我们引入了一种称为逐步功能网络重新配置（sFNR）的动态度量方法，用于描述不同空间尺度上大脑配置的重新布线方式。我们将 sFNR 应用于两个独立的数据集，一个包括 160 名健康对照（HCs）和 151 名精神分裂症（SZ）患者，另一个包括 314 名 HCs 和 255 名自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体。我们发现，SZ 和 ASD 都增加了全脑 sFNR 和小脑与皮质下/感觉运动域之间的 sFNR。在 ICN 水平上，SZ 的异常主要位于皮质下、感觉和小脑域内的 ICN 中，而 ASD 的异常则更广泛地分布在各个域中。有趣的是，小脑和感觉运动域之间 sFNR 的 SZ-ASD 重叠异常与 SZ 中的推理-解决问题的表现（r = -0.1652，p = 0.0058）以及 ASD 中的自闭症诊断观察量表（r = 0.1853，p = 0.0077）相关。我们的发现表明，动态重新配置缺陷可能代表 SZ 和 ASD 的一个关键交叉点。不同空间尺度上的大脑动态研究可以提供对功能重新配置的全面了解，这可能有助于我们了解大脑疾病中的认知能力下降和其他病理生理学。
