Feng Sitong, Dong Linrui, Yan Bin, Zheng Sisi, Feng Zhengtian, Li Xue, Li Jiajia, Sun Ning, Ning Yanzhe, Jia Hongxiao
Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & National Center for Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Advanced Innovation Center for Human Brain Protection, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2023 Sep 5;19:1925-1933. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S426213. eCollection 2023.
Several studies have demonstrated that psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED) patients potentially suffer from cognitive dysfunction. Despite that previous neuroimaging studies have reported abnormal functional connections of brain areas associated with cognitive function in pED, the underlying mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in pED remain elusive. This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction by analyzing large-scale brain networks.
A total of 30 patients with pED and 30 matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this study and scanned by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Dosenbach Atlas was used to define large-scale networks across the brain. The resting-state functional connectivity (FC) within and between large-scale brain networks was calculated to compare pED patients with HCs. The relationship among cognitive performances and altered FC of large-scale brain networks was further explored in pED patients.
Our results showed that the decreased FC within visual network, and between visual network and default mode network, visual network and frontoparietal network, and ventral attention and default mode network were found in pED patients. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between immediate memory score and FC within visual network. The visuospatial score was negatively correlated with decreased FC between ventral attention network and default mode network.
Taken together, our findings revealed the relationship between cognitive impairments and altered FC between large-scale brain networks in pED patients, providing the new evidence about the neural mechanisms of cognitive dysfunction in pED patients.
多项研究表明，心因性勃起功能障碍（pED）患者可能存在认知功能障碍。尽管先前的神经影像学研究报告了pED患者中与认知功能相关脑区的功能连接异常，但pED患者认知功能障碍的潜在机制仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过分析大规模脑网络来探究认知功能障碍的潜在机制。
本研究共招募了30例pED患者和30例匹配的健康对照（HCs），并采用静息态功能磁共振成像进行扫描。使用多森巴赫图谱来定义全脑的大规模网络。计算大规模脑网络内部和之间的静息态功能连接（FC），以比较pED患者和HCs。进一步探究pED患者认知表现与大规模脑网络FC改变之间的关系。
我们的结果显示，pED患者视觉网络内部以及视觉网络与默认模式网络、视觉网络与额顶网络、腹侧注意网络与默认模式网络之间的FC降低。此外，即时记忆分数与视觉网络内部的FC呈正相关。视觉空间分数与腹侧注意网络和默认模式网络之间FC降低呈负相关。
综上所述，我们的研究结果揭示了pED患者认知障碍与大规模脑网络之间FC改变的关系，为pED患者认知功能障碍的神经机制提供了新的证据。
