Zhou Zhi, Zhu Rui, Shao Wen, Zhang Shu-Juan, Wang Lei, Ding Xue-Jiao, Peng Dan-Tao
Department of Neurology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China.
Department of Neurology, Beijing Geriatric Hospital, Beijing, China.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2021 Mar 10;15:596221. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.596221. eCollection 2021.
This case-control study is aimed to investigate the correlation of altered functional connectivity (FC) in cerebellum with cognitive impairment in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The morphometric and resting-state FC MRI analysis including 46 participants with AD, 32 with aMCI and 42 age-matched normal controls (NCs) were conducted. We compared the cerebellar gray matter volume and cerebellar FC with cerebral cortical regions among three groups. To investigate the relationship of cerebellar FC with cognition, we measure the correlation of significant altered FC and individual cognitive domain. No significant morphometric differences of cerebellum was observed across three groups. The patients with AD had weaker cerebral cortical FCs in bilateral Crus I and left VIIb compared to NCs, and in bilateral Crus I compared to patients with aMCI. For patients with aMCI, the weaker FC were found between right Crus I, left VIIb and cerebral cortical regions compared to NCs. The strength of left cerebellar FC positively correlated with specific cognitive subdomains, including memory, executive function, visuospatial function, and global cognition in AD and aMCI. These findings demonstrated the alteration of cerebellar FC with cerebral cortical regions, and the correlation of cerebellar FC and cognitive impairment in AD and aMCI.
这项病例对照研究旨在探讨遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）和阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者小脑功能连接（FC）改变与认知障碍之间的相关性。对46例AD患者、32例aMCI患者和42例年龄匹配的正常对照（NC）进行了形态学和静息态FC磁共振成像分析。我们比较了三组之间小脑灰质体积和小脑与大脑皮层区域的FC。为了研究小脑FC与认知的关系，我们测量了显著改变的FC与个体认知领域之间的相关性。三组之间未观察到小脑形态学的显著差异。与NC相比，AD患者双侧I脚和左侧VIIb的大脑皮层FC较弱，与aMCI患者相比，双侧I脚的大脑皮层FC较弱。对于aMCI患者，与NC相比，右侧I脚、左侧VIIb与大脑皮层区域之间的FC较弱。左侧小脑FC的强度与AD和aMCI患者的特定认知子领域呈正相关，包括记忆、执行功能、视觉空间功能和整体认知。这些发现证明了小脑FC与大脑皮层区域的改变，以及AD和aMCI中小脑FC与认知障碍的相关性。
