Correlation between structural and functional connectivity impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Neurology

Background:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease causing progressive motor function loss.
• The underlying pathogenesis of ALS is not fully understood.
• Brain imaging may reveal structural and functional network alterations in ALS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC) changes in the brain network of ALS patients.
• To identify specific patterns of network disruption in ALS.

Main Methods:

• Utilized diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for structural brain network reconstruction in 64 ALS patients and 27 controls.
• Employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess functional brain network interactions.
• Analyzed correlations between SC and FC changes.

Main Results:

• Significant overlap was observed between structurally and functionally impaired brain connections.
• Connections directly linked to the motor cortex exhibited greater structural and functional impairment.
• A strong positive correlation (r=0.44, P<0.0001) was found between averaged SC and FC changes per brain region.

Conclusions:

• Structural and functional network degeneration in ALS are coupled processes.
• The findings suggest that the ALS pathogenic process impacts both SC and FC.
• Structural connectivity appears to be most prominently affected in ALS brain networks.