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Feng M, Wen H, Xin H, Wang S, Gao Y, Sui C, Liang C, Guo L. Decreased Local Specialization of Brain Structural Networks Associated with Cognitive Dysfuntion Revealed by Probabilistic Diffusion Tractography for Different Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Burdens. Mol Neurobiol 2024; 61:326-339. [PMID: 37606718 PMCID: PMC10791730 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-023-03597-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
To reveal the network-level structural disruptions associated with cognitive dysfunctions in different cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) burdens, we used probabilistic diffusion tractography and graph theory to investigate the brain network topology in 67 patients with a severe CSVD burden (CSVD-s), 133 patients with a mild CSVD burden (CSVD-m) and 89 healthy controls. We used one-way analysis of covariance to assess the altered topological measures between groups, and then evaluated their Pearson correlation with cognitive parameters. Both the CSVD and control groups showed efficient small-world organization in white matter (WM) networks. However, compared with CSVD-m patients and controls, CSVD-s patients exhibited significantly decreased local efficiency, with partially reorganized hub distributions. For regional topology, CSVD-s patients showed significantly decreased nodal efficiency in the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus, caudate nucleus, right opercular inferior frontal gyrus (IFGoperc), supplementary motor area (SMA), insula and left orbital superior frontal gyrus and angular gyrus. Intriguingly, global/local efficiency and nodal efficiency of the bilateral caudate nucleus, right IFGoperc, SMA and left angular gyrus showed significant correlations with cognitive parameters in the CSVD-s group, while only the left pallidum showed significant correlations with cognitive metrics in the CSVD-m group. In conclusion, the decreased local specialization of brain structural networks in patients with different CSVD burdens provides novel insights into understanding the brain structural alterations in relation to CSVD severity. Cognitive correlations with brain structural network efficiency suggest their potential use as neuroimaging biomarkers to assess the severity of CSVD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengmeng Feng
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jing-wu Road No. 324, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Hongwei Wen
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (Ministry of Education), Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Haotian Xin
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jing-wu Road No. 324, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Shengpei Wang
- Research Center for Brain-inspired Intelligence, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, ZhongGuanCun East Rd. 95 #, Beijing, 100190, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yian Gao
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical university, Jing-wu Road No. 324, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Chaofan Sui
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical university, Jing-wu Road No. 324, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Changhu Liang
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong University, Jing-wu Road No. 324, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China.
- Key Laboratory of Endocrine Glucose & Lipids Metabolism and Brain Aging, Department of Radiology, Ministry of Education, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China.
| | - Lingfei Guo
- Key Laboratory of Endocrine Glucose & Lipids Metabolism and Brain Aging, Department of Radiology, Ministry of Education, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China.
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