Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach
Background: Recent studies have discovered that functional connections are impaired among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), even at the preclinical stage. The cerebellum has been implicated as playing a role in cognitive processes. However, functional connectivity (FC) among cognitive sub...
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doaj-7bb6ff920a184a0db37754f3cff910792021-06-17T11:00:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952021-06-011210.3389/fneur.2021.645171645171Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based ApproachFanyu Tang0Donglin Zhu1Wenying Ma2Qun Yao3Qian Li4Jingping Shi5Department of Neurology, Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaDepartment of Neurology, Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaNanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaDepartment of Neurology, Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaNanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaDepartment of Neurology, Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, ChinaBackground: Recent studies have discovered that functional connections are impaired among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), even at the preclinical stage. The cerebellum has been implicated as playing a role in cognitive processes. However, functional connectivity (FC) among cognitive sub-regions of the cerebellum in patients with AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remains to be further elucidated.Objective: Our study aims to investigate the FC changes of the cerebellum among patients with AD and MCI, compared to healthy controls (HC). Additionally, we explored the role of cerebellum FC changes in the cognitive performance of all subjects.Materials: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from three different groups (28 AD patients, 26 MCI patients, and 30 HC) was collected. We defined cerebellar crus II and lobule IX as seed regions to assess the intragroup differences of cortico-cerebellar connectivity. Bias correlational analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between changes in FC and neuropsychological performance.Results: Compared to HC, AD patients had decreased FC within the caudate, limbic lobe, medial frontal gyrus (MFG), middle temporal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, parietal lobe/precuneus, inferior temporal gyrus, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Interestingly, MCI patients demonstrated increased FC within inferior parietal lobe, and MFG, while they had decreased FC in the thalamus, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior frontal gyrus. Further analysis indicated that FC changes between the left crus II and the right thalamus, as well as between left lobule IX and the right parietal lobe, were both associated with cognitive decline in AD. Disrupted FC between left crus II and right thalamus, as well as between left lobule IX and right parietal lobe, was associated with attention deficit among subjects with MCI.Conclusion: These findings indicate that cortico-cerebellar FC in MCI and AD patients was significantly disrupted with different distributions, particularly in the default mode networks (DMN) and fronto-parietal networks (FPN) region. Increased activity within the fronto-parietal areas of MCI patients indicated a possible compensatory role for the cerebellum in cognitive impairment. Therefore, alterations in the cortico-cerebellar FC represent a novel approach for early diagnosis and a potential therapeutic target for early intervention.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.645171/fullcerebellumAzheimer's diseasemild cognitive impairmentfunctional connectivityresting-state functional MRI |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Fanyu Tang Donglin Zhu Wenying Ma Qun Yao Qian Li Jingping Shi |
spellingShingle |
Fanyu Tang Donglin Zhu Wenying Ma Qun Yao Qian Li Jingping Shi Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach Frontiers in Neurology cerebellum Azheimer's disease mild cognitive impairment functional connectivity resting-state functional MRI |
author_facet |
Fanyu Tang Donglin Zhu Wenying Ma Qun Yao Qian Li Jingping Shi |
author_sort |
Fanyu Tang |
title |
Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach |
title_short |
Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach |
title_full |
Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach |
title_fullStr |
Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach |
title_full_unstemmed |
Differences Changes in Cerebellar Functional Connectivity Between Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: A Seed-Based Approach |
title_sort |
differences changes in cerebellar functional connectivity between mild cognitive impairment and alzheimer's disease: a seed-based approach |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Neurology |
issn |
1664-2295 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
Background: Recent studies have discovered that functional connections are impaired among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), even at the preclinical stage. The cerebellum has been implicated as playing a role in cognitive processes. However, functional connectivity (FC) among cognitive sub-regions of the cerebellum in patients with AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remains to be further elucidated.Objective: Our study aims to investigate the FC changes of the cerebellum among patients with AD and MCI, compared to healthy controls (HC). Additionally, we explored the role of cerebellum FC changes in the cognitive performance of all subjects.Materials: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from three different groups (28 AD patients, 26 MCI patients, and 30 HC) was collected. We defined cerebellar crus II and lobule IX as seed regions to assess the intragroup differences of cortico-cerebellar connectivity. Bias correlational analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between changes in FC and neuropsychological performance.Results: Compared to HC, AD patients had decreased FC within the caudate, limbic lobe, medial frontal gyrus (MFG), middle temporal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, parietal lobe/precuneus, inferior temporal gyrus, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Interestingly, MCI patients demonstrated increased FC within inferior parietal lobe, and MFG, while they had decreased FC in the thalamus, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior frontal gyrus. Further analysis indicated that FC changes between the left crus II and the right thalamus, as well as between left lobule IX and the right parietal lobe, were both associated with cognitive decline in AD. Disrupted FC between left crus II and right thalamus, as well as between left lobule IX and right parietal lobe, was associated with attention deficit among subjects with MCI.Conclusion: These findings indicate that cortico-cerebellar FC in MCI and AD patients was significantly disrupted with different distributions, particularly in the default mode networks (DMN) and fronto-parietal networks (FPN) region. Increased activity within the fronto-parietal areas of MCI patients indicated a possible compensatory role for the cerebellum in cognitive impairment. Therefore, alterations in the cortico-cerebellar FC represent a novel approach for early diagnosis and a potential therapeutic target for early intervention. |
topic |
cerebellum Azheimer's disease mild cognitive impairment functional connectivity resting-state functional MRI |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.645171/full |
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