Disrupted brain connectivity patterns in early-to-middle-aged adults with subjective memory complaints: A
Chia-Lin Tsai1, Pei-Lin Lee2, Chih-Sung Liang3
1Department of Neurology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical University, Taipei 114, Taiwan.
Background:
Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) in early-to-middle adulthood may suggest early cognitive decline, high mild cognitive impairment risk, and Alzheimer's disease. SMC research focuses on older adults; however, studying younger populations could reveal critical early neurobiological changes. We aimed to facilitate early detection and monitoring of cognitive decline in individuals with SMCs, to improve early diagnosis and guide interventions.
Methods:
We conducted cross-sectional (96 healthy controls, 92 individuals with SMCs) and longitudinal (15 controls, 11 participants with SMCs; mean follow-up 4.0 ± 1.4 years) analyses using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We constructed large-scale intrinsic functional brain connectomes for each participant using 260 brain regions. Interrelationships among nine large-scale brain networks were analyzed using network contingency analysis.
Results:
Cross-sectional analysis revealed reduced connectivity within the default mode network (DMN) and between sensorimotor and cerebellar networks in individuals with SMCs. Longitudinal investigation showed progressively increasing limbic connectivity with the frontoparietal network and DMN, suggesting an early compensatory mechanism. These changes may indicate neural resilience attempts despite network inefficiencies. Combining altered DMN-DMN and sensorimotor-cerebellar connectivity patterns for discriminating individuals with SMCs from controls yielded an area under the curve of 0.749 (95 % confidence interval: 0.680-0.817).
Conclusions:
This analysis revealed distinct network disruption and compensation patterns, particularly involving DMN, sensorimotor, cerebellar, and limbic networks in early-to-middle-aged adults with SMCs. A compensatory mechanism preceding cognitive decline may be the progressive enhancement of limbic connectivity. These findings suggest potential neuroimaging biomarkers for early identification and monitoring of cognitive decline risk.
More Related Videos
10:43Developing Neuroimaging Phenotypes of the Default Mode Network in PTSD: Integrating the Resting State, Working Memory, and Structural Connectivity
Published on: July 1, 2014
07:13Cerebral Blood Flow-Based Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Human Brain using Optical Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2020
