title: Changes in thalamic connectivity in the early and late stages of amnestic mild cognitive impairment: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance study from ADNI.
abstract: We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate changes in the thalamus functional connectivity in early and late stages of amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Data of 25 late stages of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (LMCI) patients, 30 early stages of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (EMCI) patients and 30 well-matched healthy controls (HC) were analyzed from the Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). We focused on the correlation between low frequency fMRI signal fluctuations in the thalamus and those in all other brain regions. Compared to healthy controls, we found functional connectivity between the left/right thalamus and a set of brain areas was decreased in LMCI and/or EMCI including right fusiform gyrus (FG), left and right superior temporal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus extending into supplementary motor area, right insula, left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) extending into middle occipital gyrus (MOG). We also observed increased functional connectivity between the left/right thalamus and several regions in LMCI and/or EMCI including left FG, right MOG, left and right precuneus, right MTG and left inferior temporal gyrus. In the direct comparison between the LMCI and EMCI groups, we obtained several brain regions showed thalamus-seeded functional connectivity differences such as the precentral gyrus, hippocampus, FG and MTG. Briefly, these brain regions mentioned above were mainly located in the thalamo-related networks including thalamo-hippocampus, thalamo-temporal, thalamo-visual, and thalamo-default mode network. The decreased functional connectivity of the thalamus might suggest reduced functional integrity of thalamo-related networks and increased functional connectivity indicated that aMCI patients could use additional brain resources to compensate for the loss of cognitive function. Our study provided a new sight to understand the two important states of aMCI and revealed resting-state fMRI is an appropriate method for exploring pathophysiological changes in aMCI.
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Suping
authors: S
authors: Cai
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Liyu
authors: L
authors: Huang
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Zou
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Longlong
authors: L
authors: Jing
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Buzhong
authors: B
authors: Zhai
authors: Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
authors: Gongjun
authors: G
authors: Ji
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Karen M
authors: KM
authors: von Deneen
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Junchan
authors: J
authors: Ren
authors: School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, 710071, China.
authors: Aifeng
authors: A
authors: Ren
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000647:Amnesia / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D059906:Neuroimaging; D012146:Rest; D013788:Thalamus / Q000503:physiopathology*