Brain structure and function changes in ulcerative colitis

Abstract

As the importance of the brain-gut axis in the pathobiology of inflammatory bowel disease continues to evolve, a greater understanding of brain structure and brain functional connectivity (FC) in diseases such as ulcerative colitis (UC) are necessary. In this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, we investigated differences in brain structure and in FC of brain regions in 76 participants with UC and 74 healthy controls (HC). Voxel based morphometry analysis indicated greater grey matter volume in multiple brain regions in UC as compared to HC. Differences in FC between groups were identified in the cerebellar, default mode, visual, and dorsal attention networks. FC differed by sex for the visual and dorsal attention networks. These differences provide evidence that the brain-gut axis is altered in UC and warrant further investigation to determine if they help direct the evolution of UC or if they evolve in response to the presence of UC.

Keywords

• Ulcerative colitis (UC)
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Resting state networks (RSN)
• Grey matter volume
• Functional connectivity (FC)
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)