ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the application value of Chinese brain template Chinese2020 in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data analysis of Chinese Alzheimer disease (AD) patients. Methods Twelve Chinese AD patients (AD group) and 17 healthy volunteers (control group) were collected. Then rs-fMRI data were registered to the Chinese brain template Chinese2020 and traditional standard brain template ICBM152, respectively. Whole brain analysis was performed to explore the regional spontaneous neuronal activity alterations in AD patients, in which amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were extracted as indicators. The distribution pattern of brain regions with significant differences obtained from the data analysis based on the two templates was compared respectively. Results The results from both templates showed that ALFF in AD group decreased in right superior temporal gyrus, right precuneus and right angular gyrus while increased in left cerebellum, left temporal pole, superior temporal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus (all P<0.05), and ReHo in AD group decreased in left middle temporal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, left trigonometric frontalis inferior gyrus and left cuneus, while increased in left cerebellum (all P<0.05) compared with in control group. In the analysis based on Chinese brain template Chinese2020, the average of the gray matter volume percentage within the activated areas (ALFF: [38.85±17.88]%, ReHo: [54.69±13.28]%) were higher than those based on traditional standard brain template ICBM152 (ALFF: [33.75±14.70]%, ReHo: [45.66±12.35]%), but without difference (P=0.68, 0.21). Conclusion In rs-fMRI study of Chinese AD, analysis based on Chinese brain template Chinese2020 may provide more accurate information than on conventional westerner brain template.