title: Functional Connectivity Hubs Could Serve as a Potential Biomarker in Alzheimer's Disease: A Reproducible Study.
abstract: Cortical hubs that link functionally specialized neural systems are crucial for cognition. Evidence suggests that the location and organization of hubs are related to Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, two issues remain unclear: (i) where and how hubs change in AD, and (ii) whether hubs could be a potential pre-diagnosis biomarker for mild cognitive impairment (MCI)--a prodromal phase of AD. Accordingly, we examined the functional connectivity density (FCD) in two cohorts of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans (26 AD, 27 controls; 33 AD, 21 controls) and revealed consistently vulnerable FCD hub regions in AD compared with controls: within the default mode network, short-range FCD decreases in the posterior cingulate cortex and increases in the medial prefrontal cortex; within the frontal lobe, long-range FCD increases in the medial prefrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus. Furthermore, FCD correlates with cognitive score and could distinguish MCI from controls with high accuracy (71.08% in dataset 1, 81% in dataset 2). By reflecting a robust and reproducible global shift in brain functions, FCD provides an fMRI biomarker for the underlying mechanism in AD.
authors.forename: Xiuchao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.forename: Maohu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Chunshui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.forename: Xinqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jieqiong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yunyun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Zengqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Luning
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China. jiangtz@nlpr.ia.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D012146:Rest