Changes of functional connectivity between the right anterior insula and the frontal operculum in mild cognitive impairment / 中华老年心脑血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate changes of functional connectivity between the right anterior insula and the frontal operculum in mild cognitive impairment(MCI).Methods Twenty-one MCI patients served as MCI group and twenty age-and gender-matched subjects with normal cognitive function served as a control group in this study.Resting-state fMRI was performed and functional connectivity to right anterior insula and the frontal operculum was obtained with a voxel-wise manner.The difference in functional connectivity between the two groups was obtained with two -sample t-test.Results The mini-mental state examination score was significantly lower in MCI group than in control group(25.8±0.6 vs 29.2±0.3,P＜0.01).In healthy elderly,a distributed set of regions,including bilateral inferior parietal lobule,right middle and posterior cingulated cortex,right middle frontal gyrus,right mediodorsal nucleus of thalamus,right supplementary motor area,left anterior insula and the frontal operculum,left superior temporal gyrus,left inferior frontal gyrus,left precentral gyrus and left olfactory cortex(orbital and vertical gyrus),showed functional connectivity to right anterior insula and the frontal operculum.While bilateral inferior parietal lobule,right inferior frontal gyrus(opercularis,orbitalis,triangularis),right middle frontal gyrus,right middle cingulated cortex,right thalamus,left anterior insula and the frontal operculum and ACC,showed functional connectivity to right anterior insula and the frontal operculum in MCI.Compared to healthy elderly,decreased functional connectivity to right anterior insula and the frontal operculum was identified in left olfactory cortex and left superior parietal lobule,while increased in right medial prefrontal lobe.At the same time,a tendency of decreased functional connectivity to left anterior insula and the frontal operculum was also observed in left olfactory cortex.Conclusion The changes of functional connectivity to right anterior insula and the frontal operculum can be a significant biomarker in the differential diagnosis of MCI.