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Disrupted functional connectivity density in irritable bowel syndrome patients
Yifei Weng1, Rongfeng Qi1, Chang Liu2
1Department of Medical Imaging, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, 305 Zhongshan East Road, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210002, China.
Brain Imaging and Behavior
|November 17, 2016
Summary
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients exhibit widespread disruptions in brain functional connectivity density (FCD). These changes affect regions involved in emotion, cognition, and sensorimotor processing, offering new insights into IBS neural mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gastroenterology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder linked to brain-gut axis dysregulation.
- The precise neural underpinnings of IBS remain incompletely understood.
- Investigating intrinsic brain functional connectivity offers a potential avenue to elucidate IBS pathophysiology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate alterations in intrinsic whole-brain functional connectivity patterns in IBS patients.
- To utilize functional connectivity density (FCD) to assess both long-range and short-range connections in the IBS brain.
- To correlate observed FCD changes with clinical and psychometric measures in IBS.
Main Methods:
- Acquisition of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from 32 IBS patients and 32 healthy controls.
- Computation of long-range and short-range Functional Connectivity Density (FCD) values for each voxel using a data-driven algorithm.
- Comparative analysis of FCD maps between IBS patients and controls, with subsequent correlation analyses.
Main Results:
- IBS patients displayed decreased long- and short-range FCD in the anterior midcingulate cortex and inferior parietal lobules.
- Reduced long-range FCD was observed in the right anterior insula, and reduced short-range FCD in prefrontal cortices, subgenual anterior cingulate cortices, and caudates.
- Conversely, increased long- and short-range FCD was noted in sensorimotor cortices, supplementary motor area, and the occipital lobe, with correlations between FCD alterations and symptom severity/disease duration.
Conclusions:
- Patients with IBS exhibit widespread disruptions in brain functional connectivity density (FCD).
- Altered FCD involves regions critical for homeostatic afferent signaling, emotional processing, cognitive regulation, and sensorimotor modulation.
- These findings illuminate complex neural network dynamics in IBS, particularly within the pain matrix, and suggest FCD as a potential biomarker.
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