Liu Ying, Peng Bei, Qin Haixia, Zhou Kaixuan, Lin Shihuan, Lai Yinqi, Liang Lingyan, Duan Gaoxiong, Li Xiaocheng, Zhou Xiaoyan, Wei Yichen, Zhang Qingping, Huang Jinli, Zhang Yan, Huang Jiazhu, Sun Ruijing, Tuo Sijing, Chen Yuxin, Deng Demao
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
Department of Radiology, The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Nanning, China.
Front Neurol. 2025 Apr 15;16:1549195. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1549195. eCollection 2025.
To investigate the morphological network and cognitive function of patients with common-type coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during the acute phase, and examine dynamic changes at 3-month follow-up.
At baseline, high-resolution T1-weighted imaging was conducted in 35 patients with COVID-19 and 40 healthy controls; 22 patients were reassessed at 3 months. All patients underwent cognitive assessments. Individual morphological brain networks were constructed using grey matter volume similarity, and topological properties were analyzed using graph theory. We used an independent sample -test at baseline and a paired sample -test to compare the 3-month follow-up with the acute phase, with false discovery rate corrections ( < 0.05).
In the acute phase, patients exhibited increased subcortical network (SCN) connectivity, and reduced connectivity between the frontoparietal network (FPN) and limbic network (LN), the SCN and dorsal/ventral attention network (DAN/VAN), and the LN and DAN. At follow-up, SCN connectivity remained elevated, with partial recovery in SCN-DAN/VAN and LN-DAN connectivity, and significant FPN-LN improvements. Enhanced global efficiency and reduced path length indicated improved network integration. Additionally, digit symbol substitution test and verbal fluency test scores improved over time.
COVID-19 induces short-term disruptions in cognition-related morphological subnetworks, with subcortical networks compensating for these changes. Significant recovery in FPN-LN connectivity and partial restoration of other networks highlight the plasticity of the brain and suggest that FPN-LN connectivity is a potential neuroimaging marker for cognitive recovery.
研究2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）普通型患者急性期的形态学网络和认知功能，并在3个月随访时检查动态变化。
在基线时，对35例COVID-19患者和40名健康对照者进行高分辨率T1加权成像；22例患者在3个月时进行重新评估。所有患者均接受认知评估。使用灰质体积相似性构建个体形态学脑网络，并使用图论分析拓扑属性。我们在基线时使用独立样本检验，在3个月随访时使用配对样本检验，并进行错误发现率校正（<0.05），以比较急性期与随访期的差异。
在急性期，患者表现出皮质下网络（SCN）连通性增加，额顶叶网络（FPN）与边缘网络（LN）、SCN与背侧/腹侧注意网络（DAN/VAN）以及LN与DAN之间的连通性降低。在随访时，SCN连通性仍然升高，SCN-DAN/VAN和LN-DAN连通性部分恢复，FPN-LN有显著改善。全局效率增强和路径长度缩短表明网络整合得到改善。此外，数字符号替换测试和语言流畅性测试分数随时间提高。
COVID-19导致与认知相关的形态学子网络出现短期破坏，皮质下网络对这些变化进行补偿。FPN-LN连通性的显著恢复和其他网络的部分恢复突出了大脑的可塑性，并表明FPN-LN连通性是认知恢复的潜在神经影像学标志物。
