Wang Jue, Wang Kexin, Liu Tiantian, Wang Li, Suo Dingjie, Xie Yunyan, Funahashi Shintaro, Wu Jinglong, Pei Guangying
School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Comput Neurosci. 2022 May 2;16:885126. doi: 10.3389/fncom.2022.885126. eCollection 2022.
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is considered to be the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and has the potential for the early diagnosis and intervention of AD. It was implicated that CSF-tau, which increases very early in the disease process in AD, has a high sensitivity and specificity to differentiate AD from normal aging, and the highly connected brain regions behaved more tau burden in patients with AD. Thus, a highly connected state measured by dynamic functional connectivity may serve as the early changes of AD. In this study, forty-five normal controls (NC), thirty-six individuals with SCD, and thirty-five patients with AD were enrolled to obtain the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Sliding windows, Pearson correlation, and clustering analysis were combined to investigate the different levels of information transformation states. Three states, namely, the low state, the middle state, and the high state, were characterized based on the strength of functional connectivity between each pair of brain regions. For the global dynamic functional connectivity analysis, statistically significant differences were found among groups in the three states, and the functional connectivity in the middle state was positively correlated with cognitive scales. Furthermore, the whole brain was parcellated into four networks, namely, default mode network (DMN), cognitive control network (CCN), sensorimotor network (SMN), and occipital-cerebellum network (OCN). For the local network analysis, statistically significant differences in CCN for low state and SMN for middle state and high state were found in normal controls and patients with AD. Meanwhile, the differences were also found in normal controls and individuals with SCD. In addition, the functional connectivity in SMN for high state was positively correlated with cognitive scales. Converging results showed the changes in dynamic functional states in individuals with SCD and patients with AD. In addition, the changes were mainly in the high strength of the functional connectivity state.
主观认知衰退（SCD）被认为是阿尔茨海默病（AD）的临床前期，具有对AD进行早期诊断和干预的潜力。有研究表明，脑脊液tau蛋白在AD病程中很早就会升高，对区分AD与正常衰老具有高敏感性和特异性，且在AD患者中，大脑高度连接区域的tau蛋白负担更重。因此，通过动态功能连接测量的高度连接状态可能是AD的早期变化。在本研究中，招募了45名正常对照（NC）、36名SCD个体和35名AD患者，进行静息态功能磁共振成像扫描。结合滑动窗口、皮尔逊相关性和聚类分析来研究不同水平的信息转换状态。基于每对脑区之间功能连接的强度，表征了三种状态，即低状态、中状态和高状态。对于全局动态功能连接分析，发现三组在这三种状态下存在统计学显著差异，且中状态下的功能连接与认知量表呈正相关。此外，将全脑划分为四个网络，即默认模式网络（DMN）、认知控制网络（CCN）、感觉运动网络（SMN）和枕叶 - 小脑网络（OCN）。对于局部网络分析，在正常对照和AD患者中，发现低状态下CCN以及中状态和高状态下SMN存在统计学显著差异。同时，在正常对照和SCD个体中也发现了差异。此外，高状态下SMN的功能连接与认知量表呈正相关。综合结果显示了SCD个体和AD患者动态功能状态的变化。此外，这些变化主要发生在功能连接状态的高强度阶段。
