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Updated: Jul 15, 2025
Dynamic Digital Biomarkers of Motor and Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease
Published on: July 24, 2019
A study of brain networks associated with Freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease using transfer entropy analysis
Ning Yin1, Haili Wang1, Zhaoya Wang1
1State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetic Technology and Intelligent Health, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China; School of Health Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
Background:
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease in the elderly. Freezing of Gait (FOG) is one of the common motor symptoms of PD, but the potential mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the changes of brain functional network topology in PD patients with FOG.
Methods:
The resting electroencephalogram (EEG) were acquired from15 PD patients with FOG (PD-FOG), 13 PD patients without FOG (PD-nFOG), and 16 healthy control (HC). Cognitive and motor functions were assessed using subjective scales. The whole-brain functional networks were constructed based on transfer entropy. Transfer entropy was used to analyse the information flow and causality in the network and the network connectivity was analyzed by graph theory. The characteristics of PD-FOG and PD-nFOG were compared by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Results:
The θ bands brain network of PD-FOG, PD-nFOG and HC group was significantly different (P < 0.05). The average characteristic path length of the θ bands brain network was positively correlated with FOG Questionnaire (FOGQ). PD-FOG and PD-nFOG get high classification accuracy according to this feature. The information inflow in the frontal and occipital lobes and information outflow in the temporal lobe of PD-FOG patients in the θ bands increased significantly.
Conclusions:
The whole-brain functional network characteristics of PD-FOG in the θ bands can serve as potential biomarkers for early diagnosis of PD-FOG. Abnormal information flow of the frontal, occipital, and temporal lobes in the θ bands may be an important factor leading to FOG.
