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Functional Connectivity Differences of the Subthalamic Nucleus Related to Parkinson's Disease.

ABSTRACT: A typical feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is pathological activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Here, we tested whether in patients with PD under dopaminergic treatment functional connectivity of the STN differs from healthy controls (HC) and whether some brain regions show (anti-) correlations between functional connectivity with STN and motor symptoms. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity with STN in 54 patients with PD and 55 HC matched for age, gender, and within-scanner motion. Compared to HC, we found attenuated negative STN-coupling with Crus I of the right cerebellum and with right ventromedial prefrontal regions in patients with PD. Furthermore, we observed enhanced negative STN-coupling with bilateral intraparietal sulcus/superior parietal cortex, right sensorimotor, right premotor, and left visual cortex compared to HC. Finally, we found a decline in positive STN-coupling with the left insula related to severity of motor symptoms and a decline of inter-hemispheric functional connectivity between left and right STN with progression of PD-related motor symptoms. Motor symptom related uncoupling of the insula, a key region in the saliency network and for executive function, from the STN might be associated with well-known executive dysfunction in PD. Moreover, uncoupling between insula and STN might also induce an insufficient setting of thresholds for the discrimination between relevant and irrelevant salient environmental stimuli, explaining observations of disturbed response control in PD. In sum, motor symptoms in PD are associated with a reduced coupling between STN and a key region for executive function.

SUBMITTER: Mathys C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6867311 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Functional Connectivity Differences of the Subthalamic Nucleus Related to Parkinson's Disease.

Mathys Christian C Caspers Julian J Langner Robert R Südmeyer Martin M Grefkes Christian C Reetz Kathrin K Moldovan Alexia-Sabine AS Michely Jochen J Heller Julia J Eickhoff Claudia R CR Turowski Bernd B Schnitzler Alfons A Hoffstaedter Felix F Eickhoff Simon B SB

Human brain mapping 20151224 3

A typical feature of Parkinson's disease (PD) is pathological activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Here, we tested whether in patients with PD under dopaminergic treatment functional connectivity of the STN differs from healthy controls (HC) and whether some brain regions show (anti-) correlations between functional connectivity with STN and motor symptoms. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity with STN in 54 patients ...[more]

PMID: 26700444

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Project description:BackgroundTransient improvement in motor symptoms are immediately observed in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) after an electrode has been implanted into the subthalamic nucleus (STN) for deep brain stimulation (DBS). This phenomenon is known as the microlesion effect (MLE). However, the underlying mechanisms of MLE is poorly understood.PurposeWe utilized resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) to evaluate changes in spontaneous brain activity and networks in PD patients during the microlesion period after DBS.MethodOverall, 37 PD patients and 13 gender- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited for this study. Rs-MRI information was collected from PD patients three days before DBS and one day after DBS, whereas the HCs group was scanned once. We utilized the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method in order to analyze differences in spontaneous whole-brain activity among all subjects. Furthermore, functional connectivity (FC) was applied to investigate connections between other brain regions and brain areas with significantly different ALFF before and after surgery in PD patients.ResultRelative to the PD-Pre-DBS group, the PD-Post-DBS group had higher ALFF in the right putamen, right inferior frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus and lower ALFF in right angular gyrus, right precuneus, right posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC), left insula, left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), bilateral middle frontal gyrus and bilateral superior frontal gyrus (dorsolateral). Functional connectivity analysis revealed that these brain regions with significantly different ALFF scores demonstrated abnormal FC, largely in the temporal, prefrontal cortices and default mode network (DMN).ConclusionThe subthalamic microlesion caused by DBS in PD was found to not only improve the activity of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit, but also reduce the activity of the DMN and executive control network (ECN) related brain regions. Results from this study provide new insights into the mechanism of MLE.

Dataset Information

Functional Connectivity Differences of the Subthalamic Nucleus Related to Parkinson's Disease.

Publications

Functional Connectivity Differences of the Subthalamic Nucleus Related to Parkinson's Disease.

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