Sinan Zhao1, Peipeng Liang2,3,4, and Gopikrishna Deshpande1,5,6
1AU MRI Research Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, 2Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, People's Republic of, 3Beijing Key Lab of MRI and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China, People's Republic of, 4Key Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Ministry of Education, Beijing, China, People's Republic of, 5Department of Psychology, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, 6Alabama Advanced Imaging Consortium, Auburn University and University of Alabama Birmingham, Auburn, AL, United States
Synopsis
Resting state fMRI has been used to
investigate connectomic alterations in Parkinson’s disease (PD). These studies
used conventional connectivity analysis where in connectivity is assumed to be
stationary over time. However, recent work suggests that temporal variability
of connectivity is sensitive to human behavior in health and disease. Therefore,
we estimated static functional connectivity (SFC), dynamic FC (DFC) from: PD,
PD subjects with mild-cognitive-impairment (PDMCI), Depressed PD subjects with MCI
(DPDMCI) and Normal Controls (NC). We hypothesized that increased disease
burden would lead to reduced strength of SFC and the variability of DFC. We
provide evidence to support this hypothesis.Introduction
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often comorbid with other disorders such as
depression and/or cognitive impairment. Understanding the neural basis of such comorbidity
is important because it often leads to worse disease progression. Functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based resting state connectivity analysis has
been previously used to investigate connectomic alterations in PD comorbid with
cognitive impairment [1,2] and depression [2], but not both. Specifically,
these studies used conventional connectivity analysis where in connectivity is
assumed to be stationary over time and one value of connectivity is derived for
the whole experiment. However, recent work suggests that connectivity varies
over time and the temporal variability of connectivity is sensitive to human
behavior in health and disease [4]. Therefore, in addition to conventional static
functional connectivity (SFC), we also estimated dynamic FC (DFC) from resting
state fMRI data acquired from the following populations: Parkinson’s disease
(PD), PD subjects with mild cognitive impairment (PDMCI), Depressed PD subjects
with mild cognitive impairment (DPDMCI) and matched Normal Control (NC). Based
on previous studies, we hypothesized that increased disease burden would lead
to reduced strength of connectivity. Further, since pathological states are
associated with lower flexibility/adaptability, we surmised that variability of
DFC will decrease with increased disease burden.
Methods
Resting state fMRI data was collected from 22 subjects in each of the
following groups: NC, PD, PDMCI and DPDMCI. Data acquisition was performed on a SIEMENS Trio 3T scanner using an echo-planar
imaging (EPI) sequence with TR = 2000ms, TE = 30ms, FOV = 24cm, FA = 90°, resolution = 64 × 64
matrix, slices = 33, thickness = 4mm, gap = 1mm. After standard preprocessing, fMRI voxel time series were obtained from
264 spherical regions (5mm radius). These regions were defined through meta-analyses
of task fMRI data and resting state functional connectivity data [5] to provide
a comprehensive sampling of functional regions. Hidden neural signals underlying
each voxel time series were obtained using blind hemodynamic deconvolution [6].
Subsequently, mean latent neural time series for these 264 ROIs were calculated.
Pearson’s correlation was used to calculate SFC while DFC was estimated using
sliding-windowed correlation analysis with variable length windows determined by
the Dickey-Fuller test [4]. Significant group differences were obtained
(controlled for age, gender, education, disease duration, unified Parkinson's
disease rating scale score, geriatric depression scale score, Hamilton
depression rating scale, Montreal cognitive assessment score and Levodopa
equivalent dose) upon performing pair-wise t-tests between the four groups. Let $$$T_{1,...,L}$$$ be the paths that are common among the following comparisons:
NC > PD, NC > PDMCI, NC > DPDMCI. Let $$$T_{1,...,L,L+1,...,M}$$$ be
the paths that are common among the following comparisons: NC > PD, NC >
PDMCI. If paths $$$T_{L+1,...,M}$$$ also satisfy PD > PDMCI, then they would
be specific to MCI with comorbid PD. Finally, let $$$T_{1,...,L,L+1,...,M,M+1,...,N}$$$
be the paths that are common among the following comparisons: NC > PD, NC
> DPDMCI. If paths $$$T_{M+1,...,N}$$$ also satisfy PDMCI > DPDMCI, then
they would be specific to depression with comorbid PDMC.
Results and Discussion
As for Static FC, paths
specific to PD, $$$T_{1,...,L}$$$ (p
< 0.0001 uncorrected)
were found to be altered between regions in the visual network (VN),
somatosensory network (SN), and
frontal-parietal network (FPN) (Fig.1a). Paths specific to MCI with
comorbid PD were found between SN (also within SN), default mode network (DMN),
and VN (Fig.2a), while changes caused by depression with comorbid PDMCI were more specific to paths between somatosensory, visual and auditory
networks (Fig.3a). Similar changes within and between networks were also
obtained by the variance of DFC (Fig.1b-3b), suggesting that adaptability and flexible
engagement within and between the above networks decrease when MCI and depression are comorbid with PD. Further research is needed to disentangle precise neural mechanisms
underlying these findings.
Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
Reference: [1] Baggio,
et al, Hum Brain Mapp, 36(1): 199-212, 2015 [2] Amboni, et al, J Neurol, 262:
425-434, 2015 [3] Luo, et al, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 85:675-683, 2014 [4]
Jia, et al, Brain
Connectivity, vol. 4(9), pp. 741-759, 2014 [5] Power, et al, Neuron, 72(4): 665–678,
2011. [6] Wu, et al, Med Image Anal 17:365–374, 2013.