Ellis David G, Garlinghouse Matthew, Warren David E, Aizenberg Michele R
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, United States.
Nebraska-Western Iowa Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Omaha, NE, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2025 Mar 24;19:1532433. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1532433. eCollection 2025.
Patients undergoing brain tumor resection experience neurological and cognitive (i.e., neurocognitive) changes reflected in altered performance on neuropsychological tests. These changes can be difficult to explain or predict. Brain connectivity, measured with neuroimaging, offers one potential model for examining these changes. In this study, we evaluated whether longitudinal changes in brain connectivity correlated with changes in neurocognitive abilities in patients before and after brain tumor resection.
Patients underwent functional and diffusion MR scanning and neuropsychological evaluation before tumor resection followed by repeat scanning and evaluation 2 weeks post-resection. Using this functional and diffusion imaging data, we measured changes in the topology of the functional and structural networks. From the neuropsychological testing scores, we derived a composite score that described a patient's overall level of neurocognitive functioning. We then used a multiple linear regression model to test whether structural and functional connectivity measures were correlated with changes in composite scores.
Multiple linear regression on 21 subjects showed that functional connectivity changes were highly correlated with changes in neuropsychological evaluation scores (R adjusted = 0.79, < 0.001). Changes in functional local efficiency ( < 0.001) and global efficiency ( < 0.05) were inversely correlated with changes in composite score, while changes in modularity ( < 0.01) as well as the patient's age ( < 0.05) were directly correlated with changes in composite score.
Short interval changes in brain functional connectivity markers were strongly correlated with changes in the composite neuropsychological test scores in brain tumor resection patients. Our findings support the need for further exploration of brain connectivity as a biomarker relevant to brain tumor patients.
接受脑肿瘤切除术的患者会出现神经和认知（即神经认知）方面的变化，这在神经心理学测试表现的改变中有所体现。这些变化可能难以解释或预测。通过神经影像学测量的脑连接性为研究这些变化提供了一种潜在模型。在本研究中，我们评估了脑肿瘤切除术前和术后患者脑连接性的纵向变化是否与神经认知能力的变化相关。
患者在肿瘤切除术前接受功能和扩散磁共振扫描以及神经心理学评估，术后2周进行重复扫描和评估。利用这些功能和扩散成像数据，我们测量了功能和结构网络拓扑结构的变化。从神经心理学测试分数中，我们得出一个综合分数，该分数描述了患者神经认知功能的总体水平。然后，我们使用多元线性回归模型来测试结构和功能连接性测量是否与综合分数的变化相关。
对21名受试者进行的多元线性回归显示，功能连接性变化与神经心理学评估分数的变化高度相关（调整后R = 0.79，P < 0.001）。功能局部效率（P < 0.001）和全局效率（P < 0.05）的变化与综合分数的变化呈负相关，而模块性的变化（P < 0.01）以及患者年龄（P < 0.05）与综合分数的变化呈正相关。
脑肿瘤切除患者脑功能连接性标志物的短时间变化与综合神经心理学测试分数的变化密切相关。我们的研究结果支持进一步探索脑连接性作为与脑肿瘤患者相关的生物标志物的必要性。
