Exploring joint patterns of brain structure and function in inflammatory bowel diseases using multimodal data fusion.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Gastroenterology
• Neurology

Background:

• Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are increasingly linked to neuroimaging-detected neural changes.
• The spatial patterns of these neural changes across different IBD subtypes and features remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate structure and function modulation in remitted patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) using multivariate multimodal data fusion.
• To identify distinct neural differences between CD and UC.

Main Methods:

• Multivariate multimodal data fusion analysis including structural MRI (sMRI) and resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI).
• Voxel-based morphometry (VBM), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs), and regional homogeneity (ReHo) were used for data analysis.
• Joint independent component analysis (jICA) detected cross-information between modalities.

Main Results:

• Structural alterations were found in middle frontal and temporal regions (VBM).
• Functional changes included the superior frontal gyrus (ReHo) and medial/inferior frontal, inferior temporal, rectal, and subcallosal gyri (ALFF).
• A significant joint component differed between IBD patients and controls (p=0.03), most notably between healthy controls (HC) and UC patients.

Conclusions:

• Multivariate data fusion confirms brain alterations in IBD patients.
• Distinct neural differences exist between CD and UC, particularly affecting frontotemporal regions.