A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study of functional connectivity in patients with leukoaraiosis / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the alterations of brain resting-state functional connectivity in patients with leukoaraiosis(LA), and to explore its neuropathological mechanism of cognitive dysfunction.Methods:From August 2022 to February 2023, 28 patients with LA(LA group) and 30 gender, age and education level matched normal controls(NC group) in Jiangsu Shengze Hospital affiliated to Nanjing Medical University were prospectively recruited.Mini mental state examination, trail-making test, and Stroop color-word test were used to evaluate the cognitive function of participants, rs-fMRI images were processed by DPABI V6.1 based on MATLAB R2022a.Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity(VMHC) values were calculated and two-sample t test were performed to compare the differences in local brain activity between the two groups.The brain regions with significant differences were selected as the seeds to calculate the functional connectivity(FC) values of the whole brain, and Pearson correlation analyses were performed to evaluate the correlation between the FC values and neuropsychological scores. Results:The VMHC values of the calcarine fissure and surrounding cortex(CAL) (x=±18, y=-63, z=15), postcentral gyrus(PoCG) (x=±39, y=-27, z=48), lingual gyrus(LING) (x=±12, y=-51, z=-6), middle occipital gyrus(x=±27, y=-75, z=24) and insula(x=±36, y=6, z=3) in the LA group were lower than those in the NC group( P<0.05). The seed points FC results showed, FC values between right CAL(CAL.R) and bilateral precuneus(PCUN), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(DLPFC.R) and right temporal_mid were reduced in the LA group( P<0.05); FC values between PoCG.R and left CAL, left temporal_mid and right LING were reduced too( P<0.05). Additionally, the FC value in the LA group between CAL.R and DLPFC.R was negatively correlated with the Stroop C score( r=-0.39, P<0.05). The FC value in LA group and NC group between CAL.R and DLPFC.R was negatively correlated with the Stroop C score( r=-0.48, P<0.001)and also negatively correlated with the trail making test B(TMT-B) score( r=-0.40, P<0.01), and the FC value between CAL.R and PCUN.L was negatively correlated with the TMT-B score( r=-0.45, P<0.001). Conclusion:Desynchronized interhemispheric functional connectivity and abnormal cortical circuit functional connectivity were probably associated with the underlying neural mechanisms of cognitive impairment in LA.