Topological Alterations and Symptom-Relevant Modules in the Whole-Brain Structural Network in Semantic Dementia

Semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a selective decline in semantic processing. Although the neuropsychological pattern of this disease has been identified, its topological global alterations and symptom-relevant modules in the whole-brain anatomical network have not been fully elucidated.

This study aims to explore the topological alteration of anatomical network in SD and reveal the modules associated with semantic deficits in this disease.

We first constructed the whole-brain white-matter networks of 20 healthy controls and 19 patients with SD. Then, the network metrics of graph theory were compared between these two groups. Finally, we separated the network of SD patients into different modules and correlated the structural integrity of each module with the severity of the semantic deficits across patients.

The network of the SD patients presented a significantly reduced global efficiency, indicating that the long-distance connections were damaged. The network was divided into the following four distinctive modules: the left temporal/occipital/parietal, frontal, right temporal/occipital, and frontal/parietal modules. The first two modules were associated with the semantic deficits of SD.

These findings illustrate the skeleton of the neuroanatomical network of SD patients and highlight the key role of the left temporal/occipital/parietal module and the left frontal module in semantic processing.