Study on large-scale resting-state functional networks in first-episode untreated adult patients with major depressive disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective:To investigate the value of large-scale brain network research based on independent component analysis (ICA) in discovering the changes of intrinsic functional connections within and between resting-state networks (RSNs) in first-episode untreated adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).Methods:From January 2019 to June 2021, twenty-three patients with MDD (MDD group) and 30 healthy volunteers (HC group) matched with gender, age and years of education were selected. All participants underwent resting-state brain function imaging (rs-fMRI), and the MDD group completed the 17-item Hamilton depression scale(HAMD-17). The independent component analysis (ICA) method was used to analyze rs-fMRI data, and meaningful RSNs were obtained. SPM12 and Gift softwares were used to compare the strength of intrinsic functional connection within and between the RSNs of the MDD group and HC group, and the Pearson correlation analysis was conducted by IBM SPSS statistics 25.0 to evaluate the correlation between the functional connection strength and HAMD-17 scores in MDD group.Results:Compared with the HC group, intrinsic functional connection strength of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (MNI: x, y, z=-6, 54, 25)in MDD group was significantly enhanced, while the intrinsic functional connection strength of the left angular gyrus (AG) (MNI: x, y, z=-48, -66, 21), the left precuneus (PCu) (MNI: x, y, z=-6, -63, 33), the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) (MNI: x, y, z=-36, 12, 51)and the right anterior insula (AI) (MNI: x, y, z=36, 21, 0)were significantly weakened. Compared with the HC group, functional connection strength between posterior default mode net work(pDMN) and anterior default mode network(aDMN) in MDD group was significantly weakened ( t=-2.206, P=0.032), and function connection strength between pDMN and left frontal parietal network(lFPN) was significantly strengthened ( t=2.318, P=0.025). In MDD group, intrinsic functional connection strength of mPFC and the functional connection strength of pDMN-lFPN were positively correlated with the HAMD-17 score ( r=0.524, P=0.010; r=0.441, P=0.035). Conclusion:Large-scale brain network study based on the ICA can find abnormal functional connections within and between RSNs in first-episode untreated adult patients with MDD, and provide objective imaging markers for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of MDD.

Altered Functional Brain Networks in Patients with Traumatic Anosmia: Resting-State Functional MRI Based on Graph Theoretical Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Traumatic anosmia is a common disorder following head injury; however, little is known regarding its neural basis and influence on the functional networks. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the functional connectivity changes in patients with traumatic anosmia compared to healthy controls using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixteen patients with traumatic anosmia and 12 healthy controls underwent rs-fMRI. Differences in the connectivity of the olfactory and whole brain networks were compared between the two groups. Graph theoretical parameters, such as modularity and global efficiency of the whole brain or olfactory networks, were calculated and compared. Correlation analyses were performed between the parameters and disease severity. RESULTS: Patients with traumatic anosmia showed decreased intra-network connectivity in the olfactory network (false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected p < 0.05) compared with that in healthy controls. Furthermore, the inter-network connectivity was increased in both the olfactory (FDR-corrected p < 0.05) and whole brain networks (degree-based statistic-corrected p < 0.05) in the anosmia group. The whole brain networks showed decreased modularity (p < 0.001) and increased global efficiency (p = 0.019) in patients with traumatic anosmia. The modularity and global efficiency were correlated with disease severity in patients with anosmia (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). CONCLUSION: Traumatic anosmia increased the inter-network connectivity observed with rs-fMRI in the olfactory and global brain functional networks. rs-fMRI parameters may serve as potential biomarkers for traumatic anosmia by revealing a more widespread functional damage than previously expected.

Research Progress of Music Therapy for Patients with Disorders of Consciousness after Brain Injury (review) / 中国康复理论与实践

@#The recovery of disorders of consciousness after brain injury is very difficult, music therapy is one of the important ways to promote the awakening. The effects of music therapy are various among individuals, the vegetative state and the minimally conscious state, and the pieces of music. The default mode network is one of the most important networks to maintain awareness, which many other networks participate in. The brain regions affected by music involve in many networks, including hearing, cognition, emotion, and so on.

Primary comparative study on the functional properties of cerebral resting state networks in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To explore the functional properties of the brain's resting state networks in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.Methods Use the methods of functional MRI probabilistic tractography and graph theory to compare the global and local functional properties of the brain's resting state network between 12 cases of children with mild HIE and 14 cases of children with moderate/severe HIE.Results In terms of global topological properties,both the mild and moderate/severe group showed small-world properties.The γ and λ in the mild group were 2.450± 1.642 and 1.542±0.564 and in the moderate/severe group were 2.331± 1.554 and 1.353±0.672,respectively,which were in line with the characteristics of small-world properties (γ＞ 1 and λ ≈ 1).As far as local topological properties were concerned,the distribution of hub regions in the functional networks had smaller number of nodes in the moderate/severe group (8 nodes) than the mild group (14 nodes).The comparison of nodal efficiencies showed that the moderate/severe group had significantly reduced nodal efficiency in the left insula opercula,left supramarginal gyrus,left and right temporal pole and right middle temporal gyrus(the nodal efficiencies of the moderate/severe group:0.4089±0.0865,0.3377±0.1223,0.3842±0.0898,0.3508±0.1295,0.3564±0.0843;the nodal efficiencies of the mild group:0.4801±0.0762,0.4465±0.0898,0.4655 ±0.0812,0.4640±0.0690,0.4271±0.0636,all P＜0.05).Conclusion The topological structure of resting state functional network in children with moderate and severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is obviously backward than that in children with mild hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy,which may be related to abnormal language,movement and cognitive function in the late stage.

Research progress of electrical status epilepticus during sleep / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Electrical status epilepticus in sleep (ESES) indicates a special electroencephalographic pattern showing sleep-induced continuous paroxysmal discharges of spike-wave complexes.ESES can be seen in a series of epileptic syndromes in children characterized by seizures,ESES and cognitive impairment,including epilepsy with continuous spikes and waves during slow sleep,Landau Kleffner syndrome,typical and atypical benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes.Though the mechanism generating ESES remains elusive,great advances in several aspects,such as genetic studies (GRIN2A,copy number variations,ect.),high-frequency oscillations and brain networks have been achieved.Treatment for ESES related disorders should focus on both epileptic seizures and ESES,and the introduction of appropriate antiepileptic drugs or other strategies like hormone therapy should be considered to furthest eliminate epileptic seizures and protect cognitive function.

A Network Analysis of 15O-H2O PET Reveals Deep Brain Stimulation Effects on Brain Network of Parkinson's Disease

PURPOSE: As Parkinson's disease (PD) can be considered a network abnormality, the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) need to be investigated in the aspect of networks. This study aimed to examine how DBS of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) affects the motor networks of patients with idiopathic PD during motor performance and to show the feasibility of the network analysis using cross-sectional positron emission tomography (PET) images in DBS studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained [15O]H2O PET images from ten patients with PD during a sequential finger-to-thumb opposition task and during the resting state, with DBS-On and DBS-Off at STN. To identify the alteration of motor networks in PD and their changes due to STN-DBS, we applied independent component analysis (ICA) to all the cross-sectional PET images. We analysed the strength of each component according to DBS effects, task effects and interaction effects. RESULTS: ICA blindly decomposed components of functionally associated distributed clusters, which were comparable to the results of univariate statistical parametric mapping. ICA further revealed that STN-DBS modifies usage-strengths of components corresponding to the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuits in PD patients by increasing the hypoactive basal ganglia and by suppressing the hyperactive cortical motor areas, ventrolateral thalamus and cerebellum. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that STN-DBS may affect not only the abnormal local activity, but also alter brain networks in patients with PD. This study also demonstrated the usefulness of ICA for cross-sectional PET data to reveal network modifications due to DBS, which was not observable using the subtraction method.

Advance in Brain Mechanism in Nervous and Mental Diseases Based on Resting-state Networks (review) / 中国康复理论与实践

As a vital part of human body, the brain executes junior and senior function through coordination and interaction of different functional regions. Modern scientific research showed that there were many human brain functional networks in the resting-state. The rest-ing-state functional magnetic resonance imaging technology, which was getting more and more mature, taking opportunities for brain func-tional networks and was widely used in nervous and mental diseases, providing new methods and ideas for the diagnosis and assessment of nervous and mental diseases. This paper focused on the brain mechanism research methods based on resting-state networks and its applica-tion in nervous and mental diseases.