Intrinsic neural network dysfunction in quiescent Crohn's Disease

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gastroenterology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Psychological factors and comorbidities are significant in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).
• Neural phenotypes may underlie IBD comorbidities, particularly involving emotion regulation and self-referential processing networks like the default mode network (DMN).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the functional connectivity of intrinsic neural networks in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) in remission.
• To explore the relationship between neural network connectivity and psychiatric symptoms in CD patients.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3 Tesla.
• Spatial Independent Component Analysis (ICA) applied to fMRI data.
• Comparison of 15 remitted CD patients with 14 healthy controls.

Main Results:

• CD patients exhibited abnormal connectivity exclusively within DMN subsystems (p < 0.05, cluster-corrected).
• Increased connectivity was observed in the anterior DMN (aDMN) and posterior DMN (pDMN) regions.
• Middle cingulate cortex activity in the pDMN correlated significantly with anxiety scores in CD patients (p = 0.029).

Conclusions:

• This study presents the first evidence of selective disruption in intrinsic neural network connectivity in Crohn's disease.
• Abnormalities in self-referential neural networks, particularly the DMN, are suggested in CD.
• Heightened sensitivity to self-related affective and somatic states may underlie these neural findings and the increased risk for anxiety in CD patients.