Abstract
This case-control study is aimed to investigate the correlation of altered functional connectivity (FC) in cerebellum with cognitive impairment in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The morphometric and resting-state FC MRI analysis including 46 participants with AD, 32 with aMCI and 42 age-matched normal controls (NCs) were conducted. We compared the cerebellar gray matter volume and cerebellar FC with cerebral cortical regions among three groups. To investigate the relationship of cerebellar FC with cognition, we measure the correlation of significant altered FC and individual cognitive domain. No significant morphometric differences of cerebellum was observed across three groups. The patients with AD had weaker cerebral cortical FCs in bilateral Crus I and left VIIb compared to NCs, and in bilateral Crus I compared to patients with aMCI. For patients with aMCI, the weaker FC were found between right Crus I, left VIIb and cerebral cortical regions compared to NCs. The strength of left cerebellar FC positively correlated with specific cognitive subdomains, including memory, executive function, visuospatial function, and global cognition in AD and aMCI. These findings demonstrated the alteration of cerebellar FC with cerebral cortical regions, and the correlation of cerebellar FC and cognitive impairment in AD and aMCI.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, leading to a heavy burden on patients, family and society
The patients with AD scored significantly higher score on the activities of daily living (ADL) and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) compared to patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI)
In the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis, compared with the normal controls (NCs) group, the AD and aMCI groups had significant gray matter volume reduction in the left Crus I/II, and there is no difference between the AD and aMCI group (NC > AD: p < 0.001; NC > aMCI: p < 0.001; aMCI > AD: p = 0.059)
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, leading to a heavy burden on patients, family and society. Increasing neuroimaging studies reported the cerebellar atrophy and functional alteration in AD (Bai et al, 2011; Wang et al, 2011; Lou et al, 2015; Mascali et al, 2015; Guo et al, 2016; Jacobs et al, 2018; Olivito et al, 2020). Till the studies about the changes of cerebellum in AD patients are still limited, and results are not consistent. This inconsistency may be due to the poor overlap of cerebellar subregions in parcellation by conventional wholebrain methods. More evidence is needed to illustrate the role of cerebellum in AD
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