Dai Yangyang, He Qiheng, Wang Shan, Cao Tianqing, Chai Xiaoke, Wang Nan, Dong Yijun, Wong Peiling, He Jianghong, Duan Feng, Yang Yi
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Brain Science and Intelligent Rehabilitation, College of Artificial Intelligence, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2024 Dec 19;15:1458339. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1458339. eCollection 2024.
The neural mechanism associated with impaired consciousness is not fully clear. We aim to explore the association between static and dynamic minimum spanning tree (MST) characteristics and neural mechanism underlying impaired consciousness.
MSTs were constructed based on full-length functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals and fMRI signal segments within each time window. Global and local measures of static MSTs, as well as spatio-temporal interaction characteristics of dynamic MSTs were investigated.
A disruption or an alteration in the functional connectivity, the decreased average coupling strength and the reorganization of hub nodes were observed in patients with minimally conscious state (MCS) and patients with vegetative state (). The analysis of global and local measures quantitatively supported altered static functional connectivity patterns and revealed a slower information transmission efficiency in both patient groups. From a dynamic perspective, the spatial distribution of hub nodes exhibited relative stability over time in both normal and patient populations. The increased temporal variability in multiple brain regions within resting-state networks associated with consciousness was detected in MCS patients and patients, especially thalamus. As well, the increased spatial variability in multiple brain regions within these resting-state networks was detected in MCS patients and patients. In addition, local measure and spatio-temporal variability analysis indicated that the differences in network structure between two groups of patients were mainly in frontoparietal network and auditory network.
Our findings suggest that altered static and dynamic MST characteristics may shed some light on neural mechanism underlying impaired consciousness.
与意识障碍相关的神经机制尚未完全明确。我们旨在探讨静态和动态最小生成树（MST）特征与意识障碍潜在神经机制之间的关联。
基于全长度功能磁共振成像（fMRI）信号以及每个时间窗口内的fMRI信号片段构建MST。研究了静态MST的全局和局部测量指标，以及动态MST的时空交互特征。
在微意识状态（MCS）患者和植物状态患者中观察到功能连接的中断或改变、平均耦合强度降低以及枢纽节点的重组。全局和局部测量分析定量支持了静态功能连接模式的改变，并揭示了两组患者的信息传递效率均降低。从动态角度来看，正常人群和患者群体中枢纽节点的空间分布随时间均表现出相对稳定性。在MCS患者和植物状态患者中，尤其是丘脑，检测到与意识相关的静息态网络内多个脑区的时间变异性增加。此外，在MCS患者和植物状态患者中还检测到这些静息态网络内多个脑区的空间变异性增加。另外，局部测量和时空变异性分析表明，两组患者之间的网络结构差异主要存在于额顶叶网络和听觉网络。
我们的研究结果表明，静态和动态MST特征的改变可能有助于揭示意识障碍潜在的神经机制。
