Inter-Network Functional Connectivity Changes in Patients With Brain Tumors: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic...

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neuroscience
• Brain Tumor Research

Background:

• Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is used for preoperative planning in brain tumor patients.
• Baseline functional connectivity (FC) and resting state networks (RSNs) are known to be altered in patients with brain tumors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate alterations in inter-network FC in patients with brain tumors.
• To compare inter-network FC between patients with brain tumors and healthy subjects.

Main Methods:

• Region of interest (ROI) analysis of FC was conducted on 34 patients with supratentorial gliomas and 14 healthy controls.
• Bivariate correlation analyses and Fischer Z-transformations were applied to subject-level correlations.
• Second-level effects were investigated using group membership contrasts, with a significance threshold of P < 0.05 (corrected for false discovery rate).

Main Results:

• Inter-network FC was significantly higher in patients with brain tumors compared to healthy subjects.
• The anterior and posterior cerebellar networks, and the supratentorial network, demonstrated significantly higher connectivity in the brain tumor group.

Conclusions:

• Brain tumors alter FC and RSNs, but show increased baseline inter-network connectivity.
• Elevated inter-network connectivity in brain tumor patients may suggest an intrinsic neural compensatory mechanism.