Abstract
BackgroundCognitive impairment is a common non-motor symptom in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is also prevalent in nondemented PD patients, even in newly diagnosed PD patients. The possible impacts of MCI on brain function activities for PD patients need more investigation, and the potential of emerging technologies for detecting underlying pathophysiology of cognitive signs in PD can be further improved.MethodForty-seven newly diagnosed drug-naïve PD patients (28 PD-MCI patients and 19 PD patients with cognitively unimpaired (PD-CU)) and 28 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional MRI. The connectivity patterns of specific networks were investigated through the independent component analysis among PD-MCI, PD-CU and HCs groups.ResultsThe independent component analysis revealed significantly decreased functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network, visual network and sensorimotor network in the PD-MCI subgroup compared with the HC group. Furthermore, FC of the default mode network was positively correlated with memory scores from the brief visuospatial memory test-revised, and FC of the visual network was positively correlated with visuospatial scores from the clock copying test in the PD-MCI group. In all patients with PD, FC of the sensorimotor network negatively correlated with motor severity scores from the Unified PD Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III. On the other hand, the potential damage was more likely to occur in FC between the sensorimotor network and limbic network, and between the ventral attention network and visual network in all PD patients.ConclusionsNewly diagnosed drug-naïve PD-MCI patients showed characteristic damage of FC within the default mode network, visual network and sensorimotor network, and all PD patients presented impaired FC between the sensorimotor network and limbic network, and FC between the ventral attention network and visual network. These network-wide functional aberrations may underline the pathophysiology of PD.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD), as the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by motor symptoms and a broad spectrum of non-motor symptoms (NMS)
The independent component analysis revealed significantly decreased functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network, visual network and sensorimotor network in the PD-Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subgroup compared with the healthy controls (HCs) group
FC of the default mode network was positively correlated with memory scores from the brief visuospatial memory test-revised, and FC of the visual network was positively correlated with visuospatial scores from the clock copying test in the PD-MCI group
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD), as the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, is characterized by motor symptoms and a broad spectrum of non-motor symptoms (NMS). Dementia has high prevalence (up to 80%) in PD patients with long disease course [1, 2], and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is prevalent in nondemented PD patients with a mean of 26.7% (range 18.9–38.2%) [3]. There is a“dual syndrome hypothesis”, that is, dopaminergic dysfunction in fronto-striatal regions and cholinergic dysfunction in temporal and posterior cortical regions. The fronto-striatal dysfunction is related to deficits in planning, working memory and executive function, and the temporal and posterior cortical dysfunction is associated with deficits in visuo-spatial function and semantic fluency [7]. Cognitive impairment is a common non-motor symptom in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is prevalent in nondemented PD patients, even in newly diagnosed PD patients. The possible impacts of MCI on brain function activities for PD patients need more investigation, and the potential of emerging technologies for detecting underlying pathophysiology of cognitive signs in PD can be further improved
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