Dysfunctional whole brain networks in mild cognitive impairment patients: an fMRI study

Zhenyu Liu; Lijun Bai; Ruwei Dai; Chongguang Zhong; Ting Xue; Youbo You; Jie Tian

doi:10.1117/12.910864

16 April 2012 Dysfunctional whole brain networks in mild cognitive impairment patients: an fMRI study

Zhenyu Liu, Lijun Bai, Ruwei Dai, Chongguang Zhong, Ting Xue, Youbo You, Jie Tian

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8317, Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 83171P (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.910864
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was recognized as the prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent researches have shown that cognitive and memory decline in AD patients is coupled with losses of small-world attributes. However, few studies pay attention to the characteristics of the whole brain networks in MCI patients. In the present study, we investigated the topological properties of the whole brain networks utilizing graph theoretical approaches in 16 MCI patients, compared with 18 age-matched healthy subjects as a control. Both MCI patients and normal controls showed small-world architectures, with large clustering coefficients and short characteristic path lengths. We detected significantly longer characteristic path length in MCI patients compared with normal controls at the low sparsity. The longer characteristic path lengths in MCI indicated disrupted information processing among distant brain regions. Compared with normal controls, MCI patients showed decreased nodal centrality in the brain areas of the angular gyrus, heschl gyrus, hippocampus and superior parietal gyrus, while increased nodal centrality in the calcarine, inferior occipital gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. These changes in nodal centrality suggested a widespread rewiring in MCI patients, which may be an integrated reflection of reorganization of the brain networks accompanied with the cognitive decline. Our findings may be helpful for further understanding the pathological mechanisms of MCI.

Citation Download Citation

Zhenyu Liu, Lijun Bai, Ruwei Dai, Chongguang Zhong, Ting Xue, Youbo You, and Jie Tian "Dysfunctional whole brain networks in mild cognitive impairment patients: an fMRI study", Proc. SPIE 8317, Medical Imaging 2012: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 83171P (16 April 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.910864

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