Altered brain wiring in Parkinson's disease: A structural connectome based analysis.

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Altered brain wiring in Parkinson's disease: A structural connectome based analysis.

Brain Connect. 2017 Jun 08;:

Authors: Shah AK, Lenka A, Saini J, Wagle S, Naduthota RM, Yadav R, Pal P, Ingalhalikar MA

Abstract
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neuro-degenerative disorder, which predominantly affects the motor system. Diffusion MRI has demonstrated deficits in anisotropy as well as increased diffusivity in the sub-cortical structures, primarily in the substantia nigra in PD. However, the clinical spectrum of PD is not limited to motor symptoms, rather it encompasses several non-motor symptoms such as depression, psychosis, olfactory dysfunction and cognitive impairment. These non-motor symptoms underscore PD as a complex neurological disorder arising from dysfunction of several network components. Therefore, to decipher the underlying neuropathology it is crucial to employ novel network based methods that can elucidate associations between specific network changes. This study aimed at assessing the large-scale structural network changes in PD. Structural connectomes were computed using probabilistic fiber tracking on diffusion MRI between 86 regions of interest. Graph theoretic analysis on the connectome was carried out at several levels of granularity: global, local (nodal) and lobar and edge-wise. Our findings demonstrate lower network clustering capability, overall lower neural connectivity as well as significantly reduced nodal influence of the hippocampus in PD. Additionally, extensive patterns of reduced connectivity were observed within and between the temporal, parietal and occipital areas. In summary, our findings corroborate widespread structural disconnectivity which has been linked to the non-motor symptoms in PD.

PMID: 28595456 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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