title: Aberrant functional connectivity within the basal ganglia of patients with Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) has been previously shown to be a promising tool for the assessment of early Parkinson's disease (PD). In order to assess whether changes within the basal ganglia network (BGN) are disease specific or relate to neurodegeneration generally, BGN connectivity was assessed in 32 patients with early PD, 19 healthy controls and 31 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Voxel-wise comparisons demonstrated decreased connectivity within the basal ganglia of patients with PD, when compared to patients with AD and healthy controls. No significant changes within the BGN were seen in AD, when compared to healthy controls. Moreover, measures of functional connectivity extracted from regions within the basal ganglia were significantly lower in the PD group. Consistent with previous radiotracer studies, the greatest change when compared to the healthy control group was seen in the posterior putamen of PD subjects. When combined into a single component score, this method differentiated PD from AD and healthy control subjects, with a diagnostic accuracy of 81%. Rs-fMRI can be used to demonstrate the aberrant functional connectivity within the basal ganglia of patients with early PD. These changes are likely to be representative of patho-physiological basal ganglia dysfunction and are not associated with generalised neurodegeneration seen in AD. Further studies are necessary to ascertain whether this method is sensitive enough to detect basal ganglia dysfunction in prodromal PD, and its utility as a potential diagnostic biomarker for premotor and early motoric disease.
authors.affiliation: Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC), Oxford, UK ; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rolinski
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, UK ; Centre for the Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Ludovica
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Griffanti
authors.affiliation: Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC), Oxford, UK ; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szewczyk-Krolikowski
authors.affiliation: Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC), Oxford, UK ; Centre for the Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Oxford, UK ; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Ricarda A L
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Menke
authors.affiliation: Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Gordon K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Wilcock
authors.affiliation: Centre for the Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Oxford, UK ; Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Filippini
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, UK ; Centre for the Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Oxford, UK ; Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zamboni
authors.affiliation: Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC), Oxford, UK ; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Michele T M
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Oxford Parkinson's Disease Centre (OPDC), Oxford, UK ; Centre for the Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Oxford, UK ; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Clare E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Mackay
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Basal ganglia; Functional connectivity; Parkinson's disease; Parkinsonism; fMRI