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
. 2019 Nov 30;9(12):350.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci9120350.

Estimation of Brain Functional Connectivity in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Laia Farràs-Permanyer  1   2 , Núria Mancho-Fora  1 , Marc Montalà-Flaquer  1 , Esteve Gudayol-Ferré  3 , Geisa Bearitz Gallardo-Moreno  4 , Daniel Zarabozo-Hurtado  5 , Erwin Villuendas-González  3 , Maribel Peró-Cebollero  1   2 , Joan Guàrdia-Olmos  1   2
Affiliations

Estimation of Brain Functional Connectivity in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Laia Farràs-Permanyer et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment is defined as greater cognitive decline than expected for a person at a particular age and is sometimes considered a stage between healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease or other dementia syndromes. It is known that functional connectivity patterns change in people with this diagnosis. We studied functional connectivity patterns and functional segregation in a resting-state fMRI paradigm comparing 10 MCI patients and 10 healthy controls matched by education level, age and sex. Ninety ROIs from the automated anatomical labeling (AAL) atlas were selected for functional connectivity analysis. A correlation matrix was created for each group, and a third matrix with the correlation coefficient differences between the two matrices was created. Functional segregation was analyzed with the 3-cycle method, which is novel in studies of this topic. Finally, cluster analyses were also performed. Our results showed that the two correlation matrices were visually similar but had many differences related to different cognitive functions. Differences were especially apparent in the anterior default mode network (DMN), while the visual resting-state network (RSN) showed no differences between groups. Differences in connectivity patterns in the anterior DMN should be studied more extensively to fully understand its role in the differentiation of healthy aging and an MCI diagnosis.

Keywords: aging; fMRI; functional connectivity; mild cognitive impairment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Correlation matrix for the control group (a) and MCI group (b). Every matrix includes the average of connectivity matrices of all participants in each group. The X and Y edges are formed by the 90 ROIs of the atlas.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Differences in correlation coefficients between the control and MCI groups, as the result of the Control correlations matrix minus the MCI correlations matrix, are shown in Figure 1. The X and Y edges are formed by the 90 ROIs of the atlas.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cluster analysis for control (first dendrogram) and MCI (second dendrogram) participants. Every number represents an ROI of the AAL atlas.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Frequencies of the 3-cycle areas in the control (a) and MCI (b) groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Flicker C., Ferris S.H., Reisberg B. Mild cognitive impairment in the elderly: Predictors of dementia. Neurology. 1991;41:1006–1009. doi: 10.1212/WNL.41.7.1006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Petersen R.C., Smith G.E., Waring S.C., Ivnik R.J., Tangalos E.G., Kokmen E. Mild cognitive impairment. Clinical characterization and outcome. Arch. Neurol. 1999;56:303–309. doi: 10.1001/archneur.56.3.303. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Burhan A.M., Anazodo U.C., Chung J.K., Arena A., Graff-Guerrero A., Mitchell D.G.V. The effect of task-irrelevant fearful-face distractor on working memory processing in mild cognitive impairment versus healthy controls: An exploratory fMRI study in female participants. Behav. Neurol. 2016 doi: 10.1155/2016/1637392. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Machulda M.M., Ward H.A., Borowski B., Gunter J.L., Cha R.H., O’Brien P.C., Petersen R.C., Boeve B.F., Knopman D., Tang–Wai D.F., et al. Comparison of memory fMRI response among normal, MCI, and Alzheimer’s patients. Neurology. 2003;61:500–506. doi: 10.1212/01.WNL.0000079052.01016.78. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. O’Sullivan M., Jones D.K., Summers P.E., Morris R.G., Williams S.C.R., Markus H.S. AGE Evidence for cortical “disconnection” as a mechanism of age-related cognitive decline. Neurology. 2001;57 doi: 10.1212/WNL.57.4.632. - DOI - PubMed