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Cortical hubs revealed by intrinsic functional connectivity: mapping, assessment of stability, and relation to Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence suggests that some brain areas act as hubs interconnecting distinct, functionally specialized systems. These nexuses are intriguing because of their potential role in integration and also because they may augment metabolic cascades relevant to brain disease. To identify regions of high connectivity in the human cerebral cortex, we applied a computationally efficient approach to map the degree of intrinsic functional connectivity across the brain. Analysis of two separate functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets (each n = 24) demonstrated hubs throughout heteromodal areas of association cortex. Prominent hubs were located within posterior cingulate, lateral temporal, lateral parietal, and medial/lateral prefrontal cortices. Network analysis revealed that many, but not all, hubs were located within regions previously implicated as components of the default network. A third dataset (n = 12) demonstrated that the locations of hubs were present across passive and active task states, suggesting that they reflect a stable property of cortical network architecture. To obtain an accurate reference map, data were combined across 127 participants to yield a consensus estimate of cortical hubs. Using this consensus estimate, we explored whether the topography of hubs could explain the pattern of vulnerability in Alzheimer's disease (AD) because some models suggest that regions of high activity and metabolism accelerate pathology. Positron emission tomography amyloid imaging in AD (n = 10) compared with older controls (n = 29) showed high amyloid-beta deposition in the locations of cortical hubs consistent with the possibility that hubs, while acting as critical way stations for information processing, may also augment the underlying pathological cascade in AD.

SUBMITTER: Buckner RL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2750039 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Cortical hubs revealed by intrinsic functional connectivity: mapping, assessment of stability, and relation to Alzheimer's disease.

Buckner Randy L RL Sepulcre Jorge J Talukdar Tanveer T Krienen Fenna M FM Liu Hesheng H Hedden Trey T Andrews-Hanna Jessica R JR Sperling Reisa A RA Johnson Keith A KA

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 20090201 6

Recent evidence suggests that some brain areas act as hubs interconnecting distinct, functionally specialized systems. These nexuses are intriguing because of their potential role in integration and also because they may augment metabolic cascades relevant to brain disease. To identify regions of high connectivity in the human cerebral cortex, we applied a computationally efficient approach to map the degree of intrinsic functional connectivity across the brain. Analysis of two separate function ...[more]

PMID: 19211893

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Project description:Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects a large population and is closely associated with cognitive impairment. However, the mechanisms of cognitive impairment in COPD patients have not been unraveled. This study investigated the change in patterns of intrinsic functional hubs using a degree centrality (DC) analysis. The connectivity between these abnormal hubs with the remaining brain was also investigated using functional connectivity (FC). Nineteen stable patients with COPD and 20 normal controls(NC) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations and clinical and neuropsychologic assessments. We measured the voxel-wise DC across the whole brain gray matter and the seed-based FC between these abnormal hubs in the remaining brain matter; the group difference was calculated. A partial correlation analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the abnormal DC and clinical variables in COPD patients. Compared to NC, the patients with COPD exhibited significantly decreased DC in the right lingual gyrus (LG), bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA), and right paracentral lobule (PCL). A further seed-based FC analysis found that COPD patients demonstrated significantly decreased FC between these abnormal hubs in several brain areas, including the left cerebellum anterior lobe, left lingual gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, right insula, right inferior frontal gyrus, limbic lobe, cingulate gyrus, left putamen, lentiform nucleus, right precuneus, and right paracentral lobule. A partial correlation analysis showed that the decreased DC in the right PCL was positively correlated with the FEV1 and FEV1/FVC, and the decreased DC in the SMA was positively correlated with naming and pH in COPD patients. This study demonstrates that there are intrinsic functional hubs and connectivity alterations that may reflect the aberrant information communication in the brain of COPD patients. These findings may help provide new insight for understanding the mechanisms of COPD-related cognitive impairment from whole brain functional connections.

Dataset Information

Cortical hubs revealed by intrinsic functional connectivity: mapping, assessment of stability, and relation to Alzheimer's disease.

Publications

Cortical hubs revealed by intrinsic functional connectivity: mapping, assessment of stability, and relation to Alzheimer's disease.

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