title: Reduced topological efficiency in cortical-basal Ganglia motor network of Parkinson's disease: a resting state fMRI study.
abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is mainly characterized by dopamine depletion of the cortico-basal ganglia (CBG) motor circuit. Given that dopamine dysfunction could affect functional brain network efficiency, the present study utilized resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) and graph theoretical approach to investigate the topological efficiency changes of the CBG motor network in patients with PD during a relatively hypodopaminergic state (12 hours after a last dose of dopamimetic treatment). We found that PD compared with controls had remarkable decreased efficiency in the CBG motor network, with the most pronounced changes observed in rostral supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), caudal SMA (SMA-proper), primary motor cortex (M1), primary somatosensory cortex (S1), thalamus (THA), globus pallidus (GP), and putamen (PUT). Furthermore, reduced efficiency in pre-SMA, M1, THA and GP was significantly correlated with Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor scores in PD patients. Together, our results demonstrate that individuals with PD appear to be less effective at information transfer within the CBG motor pathway, which provides a novel perspective on neurobiological explanation for the motor symptoms in patients. These findings are in line with the pathophysiology of PD, suggesting that network efficiency metrics may be used to identify and track the pathology of PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Luqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jiuquan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhiliang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Personality and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Bei bei, Chongqing, P.R. China; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Data Analysis, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Guo-Rong
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*