title: Aberrant Functional Connectivity Architecture in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Whole-Brain, Data-Driven Analysis.
abstract: The purpose of our study was to investigate whether the whole-brain functional connectivity pattern exhibits disease severity-related alterations in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in 27 MCI subjects, 35 AD patients, and 27 age- and gender-matched subjects with normal cognition (NC). Interregional functional connectivity was assessed based on a predefined template which parcellated the brain into 90 regions. Altered whole-brain functional connectivity patterns were identified via connectivity comparisons between the AD and NC subjects. Finally, the relationship between functional connectivity strength and cognitive ability according to the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was evaluated in the MCI and AD groups. Compared with the NC group, the AD group exhibited decreased functional connectivities throughout the brain. The most significantly affected regions included several important nodes of the default mode network and the temporal lobe. Moreover, changes in functional connectivity strength exhibited significant associations with disease severity-related alterations in the AD and MCI groups. The present study provides novel evidence and will facilitate meta-analysis of whole-brain analyses in AD and MCI, which will be critical to better understand the neural basis of AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Hongxiang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China ; Hainan Branch of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya 572014, China.
authors.forename: Zengqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China ; School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China.
authors.forename: Yafeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China ; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Kaibin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Luning
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Ningyu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China ; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*