Fronto-striatal dynamic connectivity is linked to dopaminergic motor response in Parkinson's disease

Differences in dopaminergic motor response in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients can be related to PD subtypes, and previous fMRI studies associated dopaminergic motor response with corticostriatal functional connectivity. While traditional fMRI analyses have assessed the mean connectivity between regions of interest, an important aspect driving dopaminergic response might lie in the temporal dynamics in corticostriatal connections.

This study aims to determine if altered resting-state dynamic functional network connectivity (DFC) is associated with dopaminergic motor response. To test this, static and DFC were assessed in 32 PD patients and 18 healthy controls (HC). Patients were grouped as low and high responders using a median split of their dopaminergic motor response.

Patients featuring a high dopaminergic motor response were observed to spend more time in a regionally integrated state compared to HC. Furthermore, DFC between the anterior midcingulate cortex/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (aMCC/dACC) and putamen was lower in low responders during a more segregated state and correlated with dopaminergic motor response.

The findings of this study revealed that temporal dynamics of fronto-striatal connectivity are associated with clinically relevant information, which may be considered when assessing functional connectivity between regions involved in motor initiation.