title: Altered cortical hubs in functional brain networks in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: Cortical hubs are highly connected nodes in functional brain networks that play vital roles in the efficient transfer of information across brain regions. Although altered functional connectivity has been found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the changing pattern in functional network hubs in ALS remains unknown. In this study, we applied a voxel-wise method to investigate the changing pattern of cortical hubs in ALS. Through resting-state fMRI, we constructed whole-brain voxel-wise functional networks by measuring the temporal correlations of each pair of brain voxels and identified hubs using the graph theory method. Specifically, a functional connectivity strength (FCS) map was derived from the data on 20 patients with ALS and 20 healthy controls. The brain regions with high FCS values were regarded as functional network hubs. Functional hubs were found mainly in the bilateral precuneus, parietal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, and in several visual regions and temporal areas in both groups. Within the hub regions, the ALS patients exhibited higher FCS in the prefrontal cortex compared with the healthy controls. The FCS value in the significantly abnormal hub regions was correlated with clinical variables. Results indicated the presence of altered cortical hubs in the ALS patients and could therefore shed light on the pathophysiology mechanisms underlying ALS.
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, 610054, People's Republic of China.|Department of Medical Technology, Cangzhou Medical College, CangZhou, 061001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xujing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, People's Republic of 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, 610054, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Youxue
authors.initials: Y
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, 610054, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
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, 610054, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, People's Republic of China. wangjian_811@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
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, 610054, People's Republic of China. chenhf@uestc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huafu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D012146:Rest
keywords: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Cognitive impairment; Graph theory; Hub; Prefrontal cortex; Resting-state fMRI