Wu Peirong, Lv Zeping, Bi Yinuo, Li Yijiang, Chen Hong, Jiang Jianfan, Pang Suyan, Zhao Xin, Jiang Wenyu
Department of Neurological Rehabilitation, Jiangbin Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technical Aids for Old-Age Disability, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2024 Nov 1;16:1416816. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1416816. eCollection 2024.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is generally considered to have a high risk of progression to Alzheimer's disease. Our study aimed to investigate the abnormal functional connectivity (FC) in prefrontal cortex (PFC) in patients with MCI and explore the relationship between the observed changes and cognitive function.
Sixty-seven patients with MCI and 71 healthy individuals were recruited for this study. All participants underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) examinations.
Compared with healthy controls (HC), the patients with MCI exhibited significantly lower MoCA scores ( < 0.001). Through FC analysis, an enhanced subnetwork was observed in the right prefrontal cortex of the MCI group, covering four pairs of channel connections: CH12-CH15, CH12-CH16, CH13-CH15, and CH13-CH16. Moreover, the FC values of these four channel pairs and the education duration were significantly correlated with MoCA scores. Subsequently, a multiple linear regression model was performed to observe the independent factors of cognition decline, serving the education duration and the average FC values of subnetwork as independent variables and the MoCA scores as the dependent variable. The regression model showed a total of 25.7% explanation power (adjusted R = 0.257, = 24.723, < 0.001).
Our study suggested that the enhanced subnetwork within the right PFC may be involved in the pathophysiology of MCI and serve as a potential target for the treatment of MCI.
轻度认知障碍（MCI）通常被认为有很高的进展为阿尔茨海默病的风险。我们的研究旨在调查MCI患者前额叶皮质（PFC）的异常功能连接（FC），并探讨观察到的变化与认知功能之间的关系。
本研究招募了67例MCI患者和71名健康个体。所有参与者均接受了蒙特利尔认知评估（MoCA）和功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）检查。
与健康对照组（HC）相比，MCI患者的MoCA评分显著更低（<0.001）。通过FC分析，在MCI组的右侧前额叶皮质中观察到一个增强的子网，涵盖四对通道连接：CH12-CH15、CH12-CH16、CH13-CH15和CH13-CH16。此外，这四对通道的FC值和受教育时间与MoCA评分显著相关。随后，进行多元线性回归模型以观察认知下降的独立因素，将受教育时间和子网的平均FC值作为自变量，MoCA评分作为因变量。回归模型显示总解释力为25.7%（调整R=0.257，F=24.723，P<0.001）。
我们的研究表明，右侧PFC内增强的子网可能参与了MCI的病理生理过程，并可作为MCI治疗的潜在靶点。
