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Functional brain rewiring and altered cortical stability in ulcerative colitis.
Hao Wang1,2, Jennifer S Labus1, Fiona Griffin1
1G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience, UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-7378, USA.
Molecular Psychiatry
|January 20, 2022
Summary
This study reveals significant brain connectivity changes in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, impacting executive function and sensory integration networks. These brain alterations correlate with mental health symptoms but not disease duration.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gastroenterology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Chronic gut inflammation, such as in inflammatory bowel diseases, is linked to executive function deficits.
- Brain alterations in these conditions can be identified using connectome analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate functional brain wiring and cortical stability alterations in ulcerative colitis (UC) compared to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and healthy controls (HC).
- To identify correlations between these brain alterations and clinical parameters.
Main Methods:
- Resting-state fMRI data from 222 participants (74 UC, 74 IBS, 74 HC) were analyzed.
- Functional connectivity, modularity, eigenvector centrality, and dynamic functional connectome analyses were performed.
Main Results:
- Ulcerative colitis (UC) patients exhibited increased global functional connectivity and decreased modularity compared to IBS and HC groups.
- UC showed decreased executive control network centrality and increased visual network centrality.
- Enhanced connectivity in dorsal attention, somatomotor, and visual networks distinguished UC from controls with high accuracy.
- UC patients displayed enhanced cortical stability in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), correlating with depression and anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions:
- Ulcerative colitis is associated with widespread alterations in functional brain networks, particularly affecting executive function and sensory integration.
- Brain changes in UC are linked to mental health comorbidities but not disease duration.
- Connectome analysis offers valuable insights into the brain-gut axis in chronic inflammatory conditions.
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