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Altered Functional Connectivity of the Basal Nucleus of Meynert in Subjective Cognitive Impairment, Early Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Late Mild Cognitive Impairment
- Source :
- Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Vol 13 (2021), Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Frontiers Media S.A., 2021.
-
Abstract
- Background: The spectrum of early Alzheimer's disease (AD) is thought to include subjective cognitive impairment, early mild cognitive impairment (eMCI), and late mild cognitive impairment (lMCI). Choline dysfunction affects the early progression of AD, in which the basal nucleus of Meynert (BNM) is primarily responsible for cortical cholinergic innervation. The aims of this study were to determine the abnormal patterns of BNM-functional connectivity (BNM-FC) in the preclinical AD spectrum (SCD, eMCI, and lMCI) and further explore the relationships between these alterations and neuropsychological measures.Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was used to investigate FC based on a seed mask (BNM mask) in 28 healthy controls (HC), 30 SCD, 24 eMCI, and 25 lMCI patients. Furthermore, the relationship between altered FC and neurocognitive performance was examined by a correlation analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of abnormal BNM-FC was used to specifically determine the classification ability to differentiate the early AD disease spectrum relative to HC (SCD and HC, eMCI and HC, lMCI and HC) and pairs of groups in the AD disease spectrum (eMCI and SCD, lMCI and SCD, eMCI and lMCI).Results: Compared with HC, SCD patients showed increased FC in the bilateral SMA and decreased FC in the bilateral cerebellum and middle frontal gyrus (MFG), eMCI patients showed significantly decreased FC in the bilateral precuneus, and lMCI individuals showed decreased FC in the right lingual gyrus. Compared with the SCD group, the eMCI group showed decreased FC in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), while the lMCI group showed decreased FC in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Compared with the eMCI group, the lMCI group showed decreased FC in the right hippocampus. Interestingly, abnormal FC was associated with certain cognitive domains and functions including episodic memory, executive function, information processing speed, and visuospatial function in the disease groups. BNM-FC of SFG in distinguishing eMCI from SCD; BNM-FC of MTG in distinguishing lMCI from SCD; BNM-FC of the MTG, hippocampus, and cerebellum in distinguishing SCD from HC; and BNM-FC of the hippocampus and MFG in distinguishing eMCI from lMCI have high sensitivity and specificity.Conclusions: The abnormal BNM-FC patterns can characterize the early disease spectrum of AD (SCD, eMCI, and lMCI) and are closely related to the cognitive domains. These new and reliable findings will provide a new perspective in identifying the early disease spectrum of AD and further strengthen the role of cholinergic theory in AD.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
early mild cognitive impairment
Aging
medicine.medical_specialty
Cognitive Neuroscience
Precuneus
Hippocampus
Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
late mild cognitive impairment
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Internal medicine
medicine
Middle frontal gyrus
Episodic memory
subjective cognitive impairment
basal forebrain
Original Research
medicine.diagnostic_test
basal nucleus of Meynert
business.industry
functional connectivity
Neuropsychology
Cognition
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Endocrinology
business
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Neurocognitive
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Neuroscience
RC321-571
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16634365
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6b9fae0510c85a9e17e3d9010f31e473
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.671351/full