Alteration of Brain Functional Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease Patients with Dysphagia

Dysphagia is a common non-primary symptom of patients with Parkinson's disease. The aim of this study is to investigate the underlying alterations of brain functional connectivity in Parkinson's disease patients with dysphagia by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We recruited 13 Parkinson's disease patients with dysphagia and ten patients without dysphagia, diagnosed by videofluoroscopic study of swallowing. Another 13 age and sex-matched healthy subjects were recruited. Eigenvector centrality mapping was computed to identify functional connectivity alterations among these groups. Parkinson's disease patients with dysphagia had significantly increased functional connectivity in the cerebellum, left premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the primary motor cortex, right temporal pole of superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex and insula, compared with patients without dysphagia. This study suggests that functional connectivity changes in swallowing-related cortexes might contribute to the occurrence of dysphagia in Parkinson's disease patients.