Altered Spontaneous Brain Activity in Cortical and Subcortical Regions in Parkinson's Disease

Purpose. The present study aimed to explore the changes of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) at rest in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods. Twenty-four PD patients and 22 healthy age-matched controls participated in the study. ALFF was measured on the whole brain of all participants. A two-sample t-test was then performed to detect the group differences with age, gender, education level, head motion, and gray matter volume as covariates. Results. It was showed that PD patients had significantly decreased ALFF in the left thalamus/caudate and right insula/inferior prefrontal gyrus, whereas they had increased ALFF in the right medial prefrontal cortex (BA 8/6) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9/10). Conclusions. Our results indicated that significant alterations of ALFF in the subcortical regions and prefrontal cortex have been detected in PD patients, independent of age, gender, education, head motion, and structural atrophy. The current findings further provide insights into the biological mechanism of the disease.