title: Impaired topological architecture of brain structural networks in idiopathic Parkinson's disease: a DTI study.
abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD) is considered as a neurodegenerative disorder of the brain central nervous system. But, to date, few studies adopted the network model to reveal topological changes in brain structural networks in PD patients. Additionally, although the concept of rich club organization has been widely used to study brain networks in various brain disorders, there is no study to report the changed rich club organization of brain networks in PD patients. Thus, we collected diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from 35 PD patients and 26 healthy controls and adopted deterministic tractography to construct brain structural networks. During the network analysis, we calculated their topological properties, and built the rich club organization of brain structural networks for both subject groups. By comparing the between-group differences in topological properties and rich club organizations, we found that the connectivity strength of the feeder and local connections are lower in PD patients compared to those of the healthy controls. Furthermore, using a network-based statistic (NBS) approach, we identified uniformly significantly decreased connections in two modules, the limbic/paralimbic/subcortical module and the cognitive control/attention module, in patients compared to controls. In addition, for the topological properties of brain network topology in the PD patients, we found statistically increased shortest path length and decreased global efficiency. Statistical comparisons of nodal properties were also widespread in the frontal and parietal regions for the PD patients. These findings may provide useful information to better understand the abnormalities of brain structural networks in PD patients.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Changhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China. cjr.huangbiao@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Ruibin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wanqun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jieying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
authors.forename: Liqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuhu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Applied Psychology, Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science of Guangdong Province, School of Psychology, Brain Study Institute, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China. ruiwang.huang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ruiwang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
keywords: Diffusion tensor imaging; Edge architecture; Network-based statistic; Rich club organization