title: Impaired functional default mode network in patients with mild neurological Wilson's disease.
abstract: Wilson's disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder characterized by cognitive, psychiatric and motor signs and symptoms that are associated with structural and pathological brain abnormalities, in addition to liver changes. However, functional brain connectivity pattern of WD patients remains largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated functional brain connectivity pattern of WD patients using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Particularly, we studied default mode network (DMN) using posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) based seed functional connectivity analysis and graph theoretic functional brain network analysis tools, and investigated the relationship between the DMN's functional connectivity pattern of WD patients and their attention functions examined using the attention network test (ANT). Our results demonstrated that WD patients had altered DMN's functional connectivity and lower local and global network efficiency compared with normal controls (NCs). In addition, the functional connectivity between left inferior temporal cortex and right lateral parietal cortex was correlated with altering function, one of the attention functions, across WD and NC subjects. These findings indicated that the DMN's functional connectivity was altered in WD patients, which might be correlated with their attention dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Yongsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Bioinformatics, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, 400065, China.
authors.forename: Hewei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Jon B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Toledo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurology, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: Yongzhu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Electronic address: wangkai1964@126.com.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. Electronic address: yong.fan@ieee.org.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006527:Hepatolenticular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alerting efficiency; Default mode network; Functional connectivity; Posterior cingulate cortex; Wilson’s disease