1. Disrupted morphological brain network organization in subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment.
- Author
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Chen Y, Liang L, Wei Y, Liu Y, Li X, Zhang Z, Li L, and Deng D
- Subjects
- Humans, Female, Male, Aged, Gray Matter diagnostic imaging, Gray Matter pathology, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Cross-Sectional Studies, Neural Pathways diagnostic imaging, Neural Pathways pathology, Neural Pathways physiopathology, Cognitive Dysfunction diagnostic imaging, Cognitive Dysfunction physiopathology, Brain pathology, Brain diagnostic imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods, Connectome methods, Nerve Net diagnostic imaging, Nerve Net pathology
- Abstract
We aim to investigate the alterations in gray matter for subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from the perspective of the human connectome. High-resolution T1-weighted images were acquired from 54 patients with SCD, 95 patients with MCI, and 65 healthy controls (HC). Morphological brain networks (MBN) were constructed using similarities in the distribution of gray matter volumes between regions. The strength of morphological connections and topographic metrics derived from the graph-theoretical analysis were compared. Furthermore, we assessed the relationship between the observed morphological abnormalities and disease severity. According to the results, we found a significantly decreased morphological connection between the somatomotor network and ventral attention network in SCD compared to HC and MCI compared to SCD. The graph-theoretic analysis illustrated disruptions in the whole network organization, where the normalized shortest path increased and the global efficiency (Eg) decreased in MCI compared to SCD. In addition, Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores of SCD patients had a significantly negative correlation with Eg. The primary limitations of the present study include the cross-sectional design, no enrolled AD patients, no assessment of amyloidosis, and the need for more comprehensive neuropsychological tests. Our findings indicate the abnormalities of morphological networks at early stages in the AD continuum, which could be interpreted as compensatory changes to retain a normal level of cognitive function. The present study could provide new insight into the mechanism of AD., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
- Published
- 2024
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