Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr 11:10:107.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00107. eCollection 2018.

Altered Functional Connectivity of Insular Subregions in Alzheimer's Disease

Xingyun Liu  1 , Xiaodan Chen  2   3   4 , Weimin Zheng  1 , Mingrui Xia  2   3   4 , Ying Han  5 , Haiqing Song  5 , Kuncheng Li  6   7 , Yong He  2   3   4 , Zhiqun Wang  1   6
Affiliations

Altered Functional Connectivity of Insular Subregions in Alzheimer's Disease

Xingyun Liu et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Recent researches have demonstrated that the insula is the crucial hub of the human brain networks and most vulnerable region of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, little is known about the changes of functional connectivity of insular subregions in the AD patients. In this study, we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data including 32 AD patients and 38 healthy controls (HCs). By defining three subregions of insula, we mapped whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and identified several distinct RSFC patterns of the insular subregions: For positive connectivity, three cognitive-related RSFC patterns were identified within insula that suggest anterior-to-posterior functional subdivisions: (1) an dorsal anterior zone of the insula that exhibits RSFC with executive control network (ECN); (2) a ventral anterior zone of insula, exhibits functional connectivity with the salience network (SN); (3) a posterior zone along the insula exhibits functional connectivity with the sensorimotor network (SMN). In addition, we found significant negative connectivities between the each insular subregion and several special default mode network (DMN) regions. Compared with controls, the AD patients demonstrated distinct disruption of positive RSFCs in the different network (ECN and SMN), suggesting the impairment of the functional integrity. There were no differences of the positive RSFCs in the SN between the two groups. On the other hand, several DMN regions showed increased negative RSFCs to the sub-region of insula in the AD patients, indicating compensatory plasticity. Furthermore, these abnormal insular subregions RSFCs are closely correlated with cognitive performances in the AD patients. Our findings suggested that different insular subregions presented distinct RSFC patterns with various functional networks, which are differently affected in the AD patients.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; fMRI; functional connectivity; insula; network.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The left and right insula subregions including dorsal anterior insula [dorsal anterior insula (dAI), red], ventral anterior insula (vAI, green), and posterior insula (PI, blue).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Within group resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis, (A) The positive RSFC patterns of the insular subregions in each group including healthy controls (HCs) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients [P < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) corrected]; (B) the negative RSFC patterns of the insular subregions in each group including healthy controls and AD patients [P < 0.05, FDR corrected].
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The decreased positive RSFCs of insular subregions in AD patients (P < 0.05, FDR corrected).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
The increased negative RSFCs of insular subregions in AD patients (P < 0.05, FDR corrected).
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Correlation of clinical variables and resting-state functional connectivity of insular subregions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Agosta F., Pievani M., Geroldi C., Copetti M., Frisoni G. B., Filippi M. (2012). Resting state fMRI in Alzheimer’s disease: beyond the default mode network. Neurobiol. Aging 33 1564–1578. 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.06.007 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Agosta F., Rocca M. A., Pagani E., Absinta M., Magnani G., Marcone A., et al. (2010). Sensorimotor network rewiring in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Hum. Brain Mapp. 31 515–525. 10.1002/hbm.20883 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen G., Barnard H., McColl R., Hester A. L., Fields J. A., Weiner M. F., et al. (2007). Reduced hippocampal functional connectivity in Alzheimer disease. Arch. Neurol. 64 1482–1487. 10.1001/archneur.64.10.1482 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beckmann C. F., DeLuca M., Devlin J. T., Smith S. M. (2005). Investigations into resting-state connectivity using independent component analysis. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 360 1001–1013. 10.1098/rstb.2005.1634 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Biswal B., Yetkin F. Z., Haughton V. M., Hyde J. S. (1995). Functional connectivity in the motor cortex of resting human brain using echo-planar MRI. Magn. Reson. Med. 34 537–541. 10.1002/mrm.1910340409 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources