Abstract
Although alterations of topological organization have previously been reported in the brain functional network of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, the topological properties of the brain network in early-stage PD patients who received antiparkinson treatment are largely unknown. This study sought to determine the topological characteristics of the large-scale functional network in early-stage PD patients. First, 26early-stage PD patients (Hoehn and Yahr stage:1-2) and 30 age-matched normal controls were scanned using resting-state functional MRI. Subsequently, graph theoretical analysis was employed to investigate the abnormal topological configuration of the brain network in early-stage PD patients. We found that both the PD patient and control groups showed small-world properties in their functional brain networks. However, compared with the controls, the early-stage PD patients exhibited abnormal global properties, characterized by lower global efficiency. Moreover, the modular structure and the hub distribution were markedly altered in early-stage PD patients. Furthermore, PD patients exhibited increased nodal centrality, primarily in the bilateral pallidum, the inferior parietal lobule, and the medial superior frontal gyrus, and decreased nodal centrality in the caudate nucleus, the supplementary motor areas, the precentral gyrus, and the middle frontal gyrus. There were significant negative correlations between the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale motor scores and nodal centralities of superior parietal gyrus. These results suggest that the topological organization of the brain functional network was altered in early-stage PD patients who received antiparkinson treatment, and we speculated that the antiparkinson treatment may affect the efficiency of the brain network to effectively relieve clinical symptoms of PD.
Highlights
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous systemcharacterized by cardinal motor symptoms that results from the progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway
There was no significant correlation between the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor scores and the global network metrics: global efficiency and normalized global efficiency
We focused on investigating the topological architectures of the functional brain networks in early-stage PD patients who received antiparkinson treatment
Summary
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous systemcharacterized by cardinal motor symptoms that results from the progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway. Some early nonmotor symptoms have been detected during the preclinical stages of PD [6, 7], and postmortem studies indicate that pathologic processes may occur in mesolimbic regions during the presymptomatic phase of PD[1]. Many researchers have applied the Rs-fMRI technique to investigate the characteristics of the functional network in PD patients, and found impaired functional connectivity[12,13,14]. These studies mainly focused on functional connectivity, either within a whole-brain network or between different brain system. It is important to investigate the integrative brain network of functionally interacting brain regions
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