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Updated: Feb 16, 2026

Modeling the Functional Network for Spatial Navigation in the Human Brain
Published on: October 13, 2023
Altered network efficiency of functional brain networks in patients with breast cancer after chemotherapy
1Department of Oncology, Cancer and Cognition Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Objective:
To investigate the topological organization of functional brain networks in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer (BC) patients with source memory impairment.
Methods:
Twenty-eight patients with BCfollowingchemotherapyand40age-and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in the current study. All participants underwent source memory tests and resting-state functional MRI scans. Individual whole-brain functional brain networks were constructed and analyzed using graph-based network approaches.
Results:
Compared with the HCs, the BC patients showed lower scores in the source memory tests (P < 0.001).Graph-based analyses revealed that the patients showed higher absolute global and local efficiency (both P < 0.01) but lower normalized global and normalized local efficiency (both P< 0.001) compared with the HCs. Locally, several prefrontal, occipital, and parietal regions exhibited higher nodal efficiency and functional connectivity in the patients(P< 0.05, corrected). Finally, positive correlations were observed between normalized global efficiency and Mini-Mental State Examination scores (r = 0.398, P = 0.036) and between normalized local efficiency and the source memory scores (r = 0.497, P = 0.01) in the patients.
Conclusion:
Chemotherapy-treated BC is associated with abnormal organization of large-scale functional brain networks, which could account for source memory dysfunction in patients with BC.
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