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Structural Network Analysis Using Diffusion MRI Tractography in Parkinson's Disease and Correlations With Motor
Jelmer G Kok1, Alexander Leemans2, Laura K Teune1
1Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Frontiers in Neurology
|September 28, 2020
Summary
Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show subtle structural brain network differences, particularly in motor and parietal regions, correlating with disease severity. These network changes were detectable in one dataset but not another, suggesting sensitivity limitations.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Medical Imaging
- Network Science
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) involves functional impairments across distributed brain regions.
- Structural network alterations may underlie these functional changes.
- Novel analysis methods can assess brain network characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate structural brain network differences between PD patients and healthy controls.
- To compare connectivity patterns using data from two independent centers.
- To relate network efficiency metrics to PD motor symptom severity.
Main Methods:
- Utilized MRI T1 gray matter segmentation and diffusion MRI tractography.
- Constructed brain connectivity matrices from segmented regions and white matter streamlines.
- Calculated global and local network efficiencies and correlated them with UPDRS motor scores.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in connectivity matrices between PD patients and controls were found in either dataset.
- In the Dutch dataset, global and local network efficiencies negatively correlated with UPDRS scores.
- Specific correlations were observed in the posterior parietal and sensorimotor cortices.
Conclusions:
- Subtle structural network differences in PD may exist but are sensitive to data acquisition and analysis thresholds.
- Negative correlations between network efficiency and UPDRS scores suggest structural changes impact motor function.
- Findings align with known functional differences and highlight methodological considerations for PD research.
