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. 2019 Jul 3:13:695.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00695. eCollection 2019.

Enhanced Regional Homogeneity and Functional Connectivity in Subjects With White Matter Hyperintensities and Cognitive Impairment

Qing Ye  1   2   3 , Xin Chen  1 , Ruomeng Qin  1   2   3 , Lili Huang  1 , Dan Yang  1 , Renyuan Liu  1 , Bing Zhang  4 , Feng Bai  1   2   3 , Yun Xu  1   2   3
Affiliations

Enhanced Regional Homogeneity and Functional Connectivity in Subjects With White Matter Hyperintensities and Cognitive Impairment

Qing Ye et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Objective: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) is an important cause of vascular cognitive impairment (CI). However, a considerable portion of individuals with WMH do not develop CI. The present study aimed to investigate distinctive regional brain activity and connectivity patterns in WMH subjects with and without CI, who displayed comparable WMH burden.

Methods: Fourteen WMH subjects with CI, 16 WMH subjects without CI and 37 healthy subjects underwent multimodal MRI scans and neuropsychological tests. All WMH subjects displayed Fazekas grade 2 of WMH. Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) patterns were identified based on resting-state functional MRI data.

Results: No significant differences in WMH volume, the number of WMH lesions and brain volume were shown between the 2 WMH groups. In contrast, the WMH with CI group showed higher ReHo in bilateral superior parietal gyrus (SPG)/superior occipital gyrus (SOG) than the WMH without CI group. Compared with the WMH without CI group, the WMH with CI group also displayed higher FC of the left SPG/SOG with frontal regions, and higher FC of the right SPG/SOG with parietal regions. Furthermore, higher FC of the left SPG/SOG with frontal regions were significantly associated with less worse executive dysfunction in WMH with CI subjects, suggesting a compensatory effect.

Conclusion: Higher local coherence of activities in the SPG/SOG and higher connectivity of the SPG/SOG with parietal and frontal regions are related to CI in WMH subjects. The findings provide novel insights into functional alterations underlying the cognitive variety in WMH subjects.

Keywords: cognitive impairment; cognitive variety; functional connectivity; regional homogeneity; white matter hyperintensities.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The segmentation of WMH lesions. WMH lesions were segmented and quantified from T2 FLAIR images and T1 images.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The group differences of ReHo. (A) The group differences of ReHo were shown in the right superior temporal gyrus/Heschl’s gyrus, left SPG/SOG and right SPG/SOG. (B) In the right superior temporal gyrus/Heschl’s gyrus, both the WMH with CI group and the WMH without CI group displayed lower ReHo than the control group. (C,D) In the left SPG/SOG and right SPG/SOG, the WMH with CI group showed higher ReHo than both the WMH without CI group and the control group. ReHo values have been normalized by subtracting the mean voxel-wise ReHo obtained for the entire brain, and then dividing the resultant value by the standard deviation. The thresholds were set at a corrected P < 0.01, determined by Monte Carlo simulation for multiple comparisons (voxel-wise P < 0.01, FWHM = 6.9 mm, cluster size > 1782 mm3). The color bars are presented with F-values. *P < 0.05, CI, cognitive impairment; ReHo, Regional Homogeneity; SPG, superior parietal gyrus; SOG, superior occipital gyrus; WMH, white matter hyperintensities.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The group differences of FC patterns of the bilateral SPG/SOG. (A) Significant group differences of FC of the left SPG/SOG were shown in frontal, temporal and occipital regions. (B) Significant group differences of FC of the right SPG/SOG were shown in parietal, temporal, and thalamus regions. The thresholds were set at a corrected P < 0.01, determined by Monte Carlo simulation for multiple comparisons (voxel-wise P < 0.01, FWHM = 7.4 mm, cluster size > 2160 mm3). The color bars are presented with F-values. FC, functional connectivity; SPG, superior parietal gyrus; SOG, superior occipital gyrus.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation analyses between cognitive function and ReHo or FC in the WMH with CI group. (A,B) Significant negative correlation was shown between cognitive performances (TMT-B and Stroop-A) and ReHo in the right superior temporal gyrus/Heschl’s gyrus. (C,D) Significant negative correlation was shown between cognitive performances (Stroop-A and Stroop-C) and FC of the left SPG/SOG with the left hippocampus and the right inferior/middle frontal gyrus. Three WMH with CI subjects failed to perform these tests due to subjective unwillingness or hypopsia.
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