Why Is Aging a Risk Factor for Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease?—A Resting State fMRI Study

Frontiers in Neurology

Anne-Louise Lafontaine¹  Oury Monchi¹  Chawki Benkelfat²  Pierre Bellec³  Béatriz Mejia-Constain³  Clotilde Degroot³  Alexandru Hanganu⁴  Stevan Jobert⁵  Atsuko Nagano-Saito⁶  Kelly Smart⁷  Jennifer I. Lissemore⁸ 

[1] Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada;Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada;Centre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada;Cumming School of Medicine, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Calgary, AB, Canada;Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada;;Department of Neurology &Department of Neurology, Montreal Neurological Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada;Movement Disorders Unit, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC, Canada;Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada;

关键词: Parkinson's disease;    mild cognitive impairment;    age;    functional connectivity;    cognition;    neuroimaging (functional);   

DOI  :  10.3389/fneur.2019.00267

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Using resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) data of younger and older healthy volunteers and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and applying two different analytic approaches, we investigated the effects of age, pathology, and cognition on brain connectivity. When comparing rsfMRI connectivity strength of PD patients and older healthy volunteers, reduction between multiple brain regions in PD patients with MCI (PD-MCI) compared with PD patients without MCI (PD-non-MCI) was observed. This group difference was not affected by the number and location of clusters but was reduced when age was included as a covariate. Next, we applied a graph-theory method with a cost-threshold approach to the rsfMRI data from patients with PD with and without MCI as well as groups of younger and older healthy volunteers. We observed decreased hub function (measured by degree and betweenness centrality) mainly in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in older healthy volunteers compared with younger healthy volunteers. We also found increased hub function in the posterior medial structure (precuneus and the cingulate cortex) in PD-non-MCI patients compared with older healthy volunteers and PD-MCI patients. Hub function in these posterior medial structures was positively correlated with cognitive function in all PD patients. Together these data suggest that overlapping patterns of hub modifications could mediate the effect of age as a risk factor for cognitive decline in PD, including age-related reduction of hub function in the mPFC, and recruitment availability of the posterior medial structure, possibly to compensate for impaired basal ganglia function.

【 授权许可】

Unknown