Changes in resting-state functional connectivity in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are treated with life-long glucocorticoid (GC) replacement therapy. Negative effects on cognition, brain structure and function during working memory tasks have been identified. To date, no studies on functional connectivity during rest have been performed in patients with CAH.

To investigate resting-state functional connectivity in patients with CAH compared with healthy untreated controls and the association between functional connectivity in the precuneus and disease severity, dose of GC and working memory (WM).

Thirty-one patients with CAH (18 females) and 38 healthy controls (24 females), aged 16-33 years, from a single research institute, underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain during rest.

Patients with CAH showed increased functional connectivity in the precuneus compared with controls. Post-hoc tests within the precuneus showed that only patients with simple virilising CAH had stronger connectivity compared to controls. Further, while both patients with salt-wasting and simple virilising CAH performed worse on a WM task compared to controls, functional connectivity in the precuneus was not associated with executive function performance.

Patients with CAH demonstrated altered functional connectivity during rest in the precuneus. Such a change may reflect a functional reorganisation in response to the CAH disease. The change in functional connectivity may depend on the severity of CAH.