Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Aug 2021)

Regional Neural Activity Changes in Parkinson’s Disease-Associated Mild Cognitive Impairment and Cognitively Normal Patients

  • Xing Y,
  • Fu S,
  • Li M,
  • Ma X,
  • Liu M,
  • Liu X,
  • Huang Y,
  • Xu G,
  • Jiao Y,
  • Wu H,
  • Jiang G,
  • Tian J

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 17
pp. 2697 – 2706

Abstract

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Yilan Xing,1,2 Shishun Fu,3 Meng Li,3 Xiaofen Ma,3 Mengchen Liu,3 Xintong Liu,2 Yan Huang,2 Guang Xu,2 Yonggang Jiao,2 Hong Wu,2 Guihua Jiang,1,3 Junzhang Tian1,3 1The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Medical Imaging of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Junzhang Tian; Guihua JiangDepartment of Medical Imaging of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, No. 466, Xingang Road, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 20 89168701; +86 18620120333Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The aim of this study was to compare regional homogeneity (ReHo) changes in Parkinson’s disease mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) patients with respect to normal controls (NC) and those with cognitively normal PD (PD-CN). Further, the study investigated the relationship between ReHo changes in PD patients and neuropsychological variation.Patients and Methods: Thirty PD-MCI, 19 PD-CN, and 21 NC subjects were enrolled. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data of all subjects were collected, and regional brain activity was measured for ReHo. Analysis of covariance for ReHo was determined between the PD-MCI, PD-CN, and NC groups. Spearman rank correlations were assessed using the ReHo maps and data from the neuropsychological tests.Results: In comparison with NC, PD-CN patients showed significantly higher ReHo values in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and lower ReHo values in the left supramarginal gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and the right postcentral gyrus (PCG). In comparison with PD-CN patients, PD-MCI patients displayed significantly higher ReHo values in the right PCG, left middle occipital gyrus (MOG) and IPL. No significant correlation between ReHo indices and the neuropsychological scales was observed.Conclusion: Our finding revealed that decreases in ReHo in the default mode network (DMN) may appear before PD-related cognitive impairment. In order to preserve executive attention capacity, ReHo in the right MFG in PD patients lacking cognition impairment increased for compensation. PD-MCI showed increased ReHo in the left MOG, which might have been caused by visual and visual-spatial dysfunction, and increased ReHo in the left IPL, which might reflect network disturbance and induce cognition deficits.Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, ReHo, fMRI, DMN

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