Assessing the Relationship Between Volumetric Changes and Functional Connectivity in Patients with Mild Cognitive...

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neurology

Background:

• Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a preclinical stage of dementia.
• Standard MRI often fails to detect early abnormalities in aMCI.
• Advanced MRI techniques are crucial for identifying subtle brain changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate microstructural and functional brain abnormalities in aMCI using advanced MRI.
• To compare brain structure and function between aMCI patients and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 3T MRI with 3D T1 and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI).
• Included 27 aMCI patients and 25 age-matched healthy controls.
• Performed volumetric analysis (Destrieux atlas) and seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analysis (hippocampi, parahippocampal gyri).

Main Results:

• Reduced cortical thickness observed in aMCI patients across temporal, frontal, limbic, parietal, and sensorimotor regions.
• Significantly increased functional connectivity between medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions and the right thalamus in aMCI patients.

Conclusions:

• Cortical thinning and altered MTL-thalamus connectivity in aMCI may indicate compensatory mechanisms.
• Combined structural and functional MRI is vital for early detection of aMCI.
• These findings highlight potential biomarkers for early neurodegeneration.