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Brain activity in Parkinson’s disease patients with mild cognitive impairment

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  • Life & Medical Sciences
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is common in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), yet the underlying neural mechanisms of this disease state remain unclear. We investigated alterations in the spontaneous brain activity of PD patients with MCI (PD-MCI) relative to cognitively normal PD patients (PD-CN) and healthy control (HC) subjects. In this work, 13 PD-MCI patients, 16 PD-CN patients, and 16 HC subjects completed resting state functional MRI. Spontaneous brain activity was measured by calculating amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) values across the whole brain. Between-group differences and correlations between ALFF values and cognitive test scores were analyzed. ALFF values decreased in the right superior temporal gyrus and increased in the left middle temporal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus of PD-MCI patients compared with PD-CN patients. In the PD-MCI group, ALFF values in the left middle temporal gyrus were negatively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment and vocabulary test scores, and the ALFF values in the left superior frontal gyrus were negatively correlated with vocabulary test scores. Our study demonstrates that PD-MCI is associated with abnormal spontaneous brain activity in the temporal and frontal lobes. These findings inform the underlying neural mechanism of cognitive impairment in PD.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81271429 and 81571228).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Neurobiology, Key Laboratory on Neurodegenerative Disorders of Ministry of Education, Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100053, China

      Linlin Gao, Jiarong Zhang, Piu Chan & Tao Wu

    2. Beijing Key Laboratory on Parkinson’s Disease, Parkinson Disease Center of Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, 100053, China

      Linlin Gao, Jiarong Zhang, Piu Chan & Tao Wu

    3. Community Health Station, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100053, China

      Xuemin Wu

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    1. Linlin Gao
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    2. Xuemin Wu
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    3. Jiarong Zhang
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    4. Piu Chan
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    5. Tao Wu
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    Correspondence to Tao Wu.

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    SPECIAL TOPIC: Mapping the Human Brain Function In Vivo

    Linlin Gao and Xuemin Wu contributed equally to this work.

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    Cite this article

    Gao, L., Wu, X., Zhang, J. et al. Brain activity in Parkinson’s disease patients with mild cognitive impairment. Sci. Bull. 61, 1876–1883 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1205-9

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1205-9

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