Aberrant Brain Network Efficiency in Parkinson's Disease Patients with Tremor: A Multi-Modality Study

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Network Science

Background:

• Parkinson's disease (PD) with tremor exhibits enhanced spontaneous brain activity coordination.
• The topological organization of these brain networks in PD with tremor is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the functional and morphological brain network organization in Parkinson's disease (PD) with tremor.
• To explore the relationship between network efficiency, PD classification, and tremor severity.

Main Methods:

• Collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 16 PD patients and 20 normal controls (NCs).
• Constructed wavelet-based functional and morphological brain networks.
• Applied graph-based network analysis, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), and multiple linear regression models (MLRM).

Main Results:

• Functional brain networks in PD showed disrupted information translation efficiency and decreased local efficiency at specific wavelet scales.
• Morphological brain networks in PD exhibited increased global and local efficiency.
• Both functional and morphological network efficiencies effectively classified PD patients and correlated with tremor variability.

Conclusions:

• Network disorganization is a key feature in Parkinson's disease with tremor.
• Altered functional and morphological network efficiencies provide insights into the neural basis of PD with tremor and its clinical manifestations.