基于内在功能连接推定抑郁症脑网络效率的改变

本文研究了在保留最大化内在功能连接条件下抑郁症患者脑网络效率的改变,并探索了改变的拓扑效率和抑郁症病理学之间的关系.为此,我们收集了20例抑郁症患者和20例在年龄、性别和教育水平相匹配的健康被试的静息态功能磁共振图像数据.图论分析显示,与健康对照组比较,抑郁症患者的节点效率减少在左海马旁回、右杏仁核,左颞横回和左颞极(颞中回)减少.减少的节点效率表明,在抑郁症患者脑网络中这些区域传送信息到其他区域的能力减弱.此外,发现局部效率降低在左内侧额上回、左眶部额上回、右回直肌、左杏仁核、右顶上回、左丘脑和左颞极(颞中回).并且发现左内侧额上回、左杏仁核、左丘脑与PHQ-9得分呈负相关.降低的局部效率表明抑郁症患者脑网络中这些区域的局部网络信息传送能力受到抑制.这些结果进一步确认在抑郁症患者中涉及情感信息处理的前额-丘脑-边缘区域被破坏.我们的发现为抑郁症病人的辅助诊断提供了新的潜在生物学标记物.     

基于内在功能连接推定抑郁症脑网络效率的改变（英文）

本文研究了在保留最大化内在功能连接条件下抑郁症患者脑网络效率的改变,并探索了改变的拓扑效率和抑郁症病理学之间的关系.为此,我们收集了20例抑郁症患者和20例在年龄、性别和教育水平相匹配的健康被试的静息态功能磁共振图像数据.图论分析显示,与健康对照组比较,抑郁症患者的节点效率减少在左海马旁回、右杏仁核,左颞横回和左颞极(颞中回)减少.减少的节点效率表明,在抑郁症患者脑网络中这些区域传送信息到其他区域的能力减弱.此外,发现局部效率降低在左内侧额上回、左眶部额上回、右回直肌、左杏仁核、右顶上回、左丘脑和左颞极(颞中回).并且发现左内侧额上回、左杏仁核、左丘脑与PHQ-9得分呈负相关.降低的局部效率表明抑郁症患者脑网络中这些区域的局部网络信息传送能力受到抑制.这些结果进一步确认在抑郁症患者中涉及情感信息处理的前额-丘脑-边缘区域被破坏.我们的发现为抑郁症病人的辅助诊断提供了新的潜在生物学标记物.     

81 例顽固性癫痫患者发作分类特点分析

目的:分析81例最终接受手术治疗的顽固性癫痫患者发病特点,了解不同分类癫痫的发病规律。方法:对81例最终接受手术治疗的顽固性癫痫患者进行分类,分析性别、发病年龄、病程、发作频率等与癫痫分类间的关系。结果:81例患者的男女比例为1.45:1,男性的平均发病年龄为13.6,女性为14.3,强直阵挛发作的耐受病程最短,平均为5.8年,大多数患者在20岁以前发病。结论:多种癫痫发作分类在性别、发病年龄、病程、发作频率上存在差异。     

中缅树鼩脑结构特征

树鼩脑的比较解剖学资料尚缺,它对树鼩的分类地位及其在神经科学研究上的应用都很有意义。本文对六例成年中缅树鼩,经10％福尔马林溶液灌流固定冰冻连续额状与矢状切片,改良美兰染色法制片,光镜观察,神经细胞构筑学分析并与猴相应脑结构进行对照。部分丘脑核团作了显微测量,用3/4πR~3公式计算了它们与丘脑的体积; 用πab公式计算了大脑与前额区型皮质的面积。发现下列特征:①大脑皮质属新皮质者占59％。可分为前额区型皮质;中央额区型皮质;顶区型皮质;颞区型皮质;枕区型皮质。额区型皮质占大脑皮质的     

基于纤维束追踪空间统计的内侧颞叶癫痫患者弥散张量成像研究

本研究通过分析磁共振弥散张量成像(diffusion tensor imaging,DTI)数据,观察内侧颞叶癫痫(mesial temporal lobe epilepsy,mTLE)患者大脑白质的改变。46例伴有单侧海马硬化的内侧颞叶癫痫患者(24例左侧颞叶癫痫和22例右侧颞叶癫痫),以及42例年龄和性别匹配的正常志愿者纳入本研究。采用基于纤维束追踪的空间统计分析方法(track-based spatialstatistics,TBSS),主要观察患者各向异性系数(fractionsal anisotropy,FA)的变化。结果发现,与正常志愿者相比,左侧mTLE患者FA降低的区域呈双侧分布,稍偏向患侧,胼胝体、上纵束、下纵束、内囊前肢等白质双侧都有异常,而扣带束、下额枕束只在左脑显著降低;右侧mTLE患者FA降低主要见于右脑,包括胼胝体、上纵束、下纵束和钩束等。结果表明,基于TBSS方法的DTI研究揭示了伴有海马硬化的mTLE患者的脑白质异常,有助于加深对mTLE病理生理机制的了解。     

慢性痛的皮层神经可塑性及其对治疗的启示

慢性痛疗效时常不够理想,使人们开始怀疑慢性痛患者大脑的功能或结构发生了病理性改变。脑成像研究表明,大脑功能和结构都存在明显的可塑性:从功能来看,慢性痛患者可能存在大脑网络功能状态失衡;从结构来看,患者大脑某些区域灰质密度明显减少。这些可塑性变化与慢性疼痛的存在及其治疗转归有可能存在密切联系。     

基于动脉自旋标记技术的内侧颞叶癫痫病人脑血流灌注成像研究北大核心CSCD

基于动脉自旋标记(arterial spin labeling,ASL)技术,分析内侧颞叶癫痫(mesialtemporal lobe epilepsy,mTLE)患者大脑血流灌注(perfusion)的改变情况。在静息态下,采集了30例内侧颞叶癫痫伴单侧海马硬化发作间期患者(其中左侧16例,右侧14例)及22例健康志愿者的ASL数据,并通过计算获取其相对脑血流量(relative CBF,rCBF)及灌注不对称率(asymmetric index,AI)。癫痫病人与正常人的比较结果表明:左侧mTLE患者在两侧海马旁回、梭状回、额叶、颞叶和患侧海马回及岛叶,右侧mTLE患者在两侧海马回、海马旁回、额叶、颞叶和患侧杏仁核及岛叶,rCBF均有所下降,且患侧的下降程度和范围均大于对侧。说明mTLE患者的海马硬化可能导致了痫灶区功能异常,并通过癫痫的发作影响到全脑。     

国人汉语Stroop任务的大脑激活模式研究

目的:采用功能磁共振成像(functional MRI,fMRI)方法考察汉语Slroop任务大脑激活模式.方法:对8例正常汉族人进行了汉语Stroop色词任务实验测试,同时采用Siemens Sonata 1.5 T成像系统,采集其脑部的BOLD-fMRI数据,通过AFNI软件进行统计分析得到脑功能活动的图像,分析不同脑区的激活模式.结果:汉语Slroop任务主要激活双侧额中回、额下回、前扣带回和顶后区,双侧额上回、中央前回、基底节区和颞叶也有不同程度激活.结论:汉语Stroop任务有固定的大脑激活模式,是一种研究大脑高级认知的良好的神经心理学任务.     

CO中毒继发癫痫的脑电图和经颅多普勒改变的关系研究

目的:探讨一氧化碳(Carbon monoxide,CO)中毒继发癫痫的经颅多普勒(Transcranial Doppler,TCD)和脑电图(Electroencephalogram,EEG)特征的关系。方法:对我院自2011年6月至2015年5月收治的145例CO中毒患者的临床资料和EEG、TCD特征进行检查,并分析其与继发癫痫的相关性。结果:145例CO中毒患者中,EEG结果显示正常患者93例(64.13%);异常患者52例(35.86%)。TCD正常患者90例(62.07%),异常55例(37.93%)。主要表现为颈内动脉系统血流动力学的改变,大脑前动脉流速与病情严重程度成正相关,TCD血流速度增加或减慢不对称,脑血流速度升高比率显著高于脑血流速度减低比率。无论在睡眠期还是清醒期EEG异常患者全导阵发性3.0~4.0Hz的棘慢波均存在放电。患者出现EEG、TCD异常与年龄、癫痫家族史、发热温度、持续时间、继发癫痫类型以及24h内发作次数有关。继发癫痫39例,占EEG异常患儿的75.00%,占TCD异常患儿的72.73%。继发癫痫患者中,15例额区放电日后发生发生癫痫14例(93.33%),19例枕区放电16例(84.21%)发生癫痫,13例Rolandic区放电8例(61.54%)发生癫痫,5例广泛性棘慢波者继发癫痫的有1例(20%)。结论:EEG、TCD检查异常的CO中毒患者中具有较高的继发癫痫的发病率,中枕区和额区阵发性异常放电者更容易继发癫痫。     

静息态功能磁共振在偏头痛患者中的应用及价值研究

本研究综合分析了静息态功能磁共振在偏头痛患者中的应用及价值。选取在我院2016年11月至2017年5月收治的51例偏头痛患者一般资料作为实验组,再选取51例健康者一般资料作为对照组。两组研究对象均接受静息态功能磁共振检查方法,采用SPSS 20.0统计学软件进行统计学分析两组患者的低频振幅值(左侧额叶,双侧枕叶,双侧丘脑)。研究发现:(1)实验组左侧额叶、双侧枕叶、双侧丘脑低频振幅值与对照组比较有统计学意义(p0.05);(2)实验组右侧丘脑局部一致性值、右侧壳核局部一致性值、右侧小脑局部一致性值和脑干局部一致性值显著低于对照组(p0.05),实验组右侧枕叶局部一致性值显著高于对照组(p0.05);(3)实验组右侧丘脑局部一致性值与病程、发作频率有负性相关趋势,无统计学意义(p0.05)。研究说明偏头痛患者在疼痛处理过程中能够有效调节脑区功能。     

Female Adolescents with Severe Substance and Conduct Problems Have Substantially Less Brain Gray Matter Volume

ObjectiveStructural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated lower regional gray matter volume in adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems. These research studies, including ours, have generally focused on male-only or mixed-sex samples of adolescents with conduct and/or substance problems. Here we compare gray matter volume between female adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems and female healthy controls of similar ages. Hypotheses: Female adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems will show significantly less gray matter volume in frontal regions critical to inhibition (i.e. dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), conflict processing (i.e., anterior cingulate), valuation of expected outcomes (i.e., medial orbitofrontal cortex) and the dopamine reward system (i.e. striatum).MethodsWe conducted whole-brain voxel-based morphometric comparison of structural MR images of 22 patients (14-18 years) with severe substance and conduct problems and 21 controls of similar age using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) and voxel-based morphometric (VBM8) toolbox. We tested group differences in regional gray matter volume with analyses of covariance, adjusting for age and IQ at p<0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons at whole-brain cluster-level threshold.ResultsFemale adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems compared to controls showed significantly less gray matter volume in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, medial orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, bilateral somatosensory cortex, left supramarginal gyrus, and bilateral angular gyrus. Considering the entire brain, patients had 9.5% less overall gray matter volume compared to controls.ConclusionsFemale adolescents with severe substance and conduct problems in comparison to similarly aged female healthy controls showed substantially lower gray matter volume in brain regions involved in inhibition, conflict processing, valuation of outcomes, decision-making, reward, risk-taking, and rule-breaking antisocial behavior.     

Convergent Findings of Altered Functional and Structural Brain Connectivity in Individuals with High Functioning Autism: A Multimodal MRI Study

Brain tissue changes in autism spectrum disorders seem to be rather subtle and widespread than anatomically distinct. Therefore a multimodal, whole brain imaging technique appears to be an appropriate approach to investigate whether alterations in white and gray matter integrity relate to consistent changes in functional resting state connectivity in individuals with high functioning autism (HFA). We applied diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) to assess differences in brain structure and function between 12 individuals with HFA (mean age 35.5, SD 11.4, 9 male) and 12 healthy controls (mean age 33.3, SD 9.0, 8 male). Psychological measures of empathy and emotionality were obtained and correlated with the most significant DTI, VBM and fcMRI findings. We found three regions of convergent structural and functional differences between HFA participants and controls. The right temporo-parietal junction area and the left frontal lobe showed decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) values along with decreased functional connectivity and a trend towards decreased gray matter volume. The bilateral superior temporal gyrus displayed significantly decreased functional connectivity that was accompanied by the strongest trend of gray matter volume decrease in the temporal lobe of HFA individuals. FA decrease in the right temporo-parietal region was correlated with psychological measurements of decreased emotionality. In conclusion, our results indicate common sites of structural and functional alterations in higher order association cortex areas and may therefore provide multimodal imaging support to the long-standing hypothesis of autism as a disorder of impaired higher-order multisensory integration.     

Reduced cortical thickness in mental retardation

Mental retardation is a developmental disorder associated with impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in adaptive behaviors. Many studies have addressed white matter abnormalities in patients with mental retardation, while the changes of the cerebral cortex have been studied to a lesser extent. Quantitative analysis of cortical integrity using cortical thickness measurement may provide new insights into the gray matter pathology. In this study, cortical thickness was compared between 13 patients with mental retardation and 26 demographically matched healthy controls. We found that patients with mental retardation had significantly reduced cortical thickness in multiple brain regions compared with healthy controls. These regions include the bilateral lingual gyrus, the bilateral fusiform gyrus, the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, the bilateral temporal pole, the left inferior temporal gyrus, the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the right precentral gyrus. The observed cortical thickness reductions might be the anatomical substrates for the impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in adaptive behaviors in patients with mental retardation. Cortical thickness measurement might provide a sensitive prospective surrogate marker for clinical trials of neuroprotective medications.     

Duration of Untreated Psychosis Is Associated with Temporal and Occipitotemporal Gray Matter Volume Decrease in Treatment Na?ve Schizophrenia

Background

Long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is associated with poor treatment outcome. Whether or not DUP is related to brain gray matter volume abnormalities in antipsychotic medication treatment naïve schizophrenia remains unclear at this time.

Methods

Patients with treatment-naïve schizophrenia and healthy controls went through brain scan using high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging. DUP was evaluated using the Nottingham Onset Schedule (NOS), and dichotomized as short DUP (≤ 26 weeks) or long DUP (>26 weeks). Voxel-based methods were used for volumetric measure in the brain.

Results

Fifty-seven patients (27 short DUP and 30 long DUP) and 30 healthy controls were included in the analysis. There were significant gray matter volumetric differences among the 3 groups in bilateral parahippocampus gyri, right superior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and right superior frontal gyrus (p''s<0.01). Compared with healthy controls, the long DUP group had significantly smaller volume in all these regions (p''s <0.05). Compared with the short-DUP group, the long-DUP group had significantly smaller volume in right superior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and left middle temporal gyrus (p''s<0.01).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that DUP is associated with temporal and occipitotemporal gray matter volume decrease in treatment naïve schizophrenia. The brain structural changes in untreated psychosis might contribute to poor treatment response and long-term prognosis in this patient population.     

Morphologic and Functional Connectivity Alterations of Corticostriatal and Default Mode Network in Treatment-Na?ve Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Background

Previous studies have demonstrated that structural deficits and functional connectivity imbalances might underlie the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of the present study was to investigate gray matter deficits and abnormal resting-state networks in patients with OCD and further investigate the association between the anatomic and functional alterations and clinical symptoms.

Methods

Participants were 33 treatment-naïve OCD patients and 33 matched healthy controls. Voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate the regions with gray matter abnormalities and resting-state functional connectivity analysis was further conducted between each gray matter abnormal region and the remaining voxels in the brain.

Results

Compared with healthy controls, patients with OCD showed significantly increased gray matter volume in the left caudate, left thalamus, and posterior cingulate cortex, as well as decreased gray matter volume in the bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, and left inferior frontal gyrus. By using the above morphologic deficits areas as seed regions, functional connectivity analysis found abnormal functional integration in the cortical-striatum-thalamic-cortical (CSTC) circuits and default mode network. Subsequent correlation analyses revealed that morphologic deficits in the left thalamus and increased functional connectivity within the CSTC circuits positively correlated with the total Y-BOCS score.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that morphologic and functional alterations are seen in CSTC circuits and default mode network in treatment-naïve OCD patients. The association between symptom severity and the CSTC circuits suggests that anatomic and functional alterations in CSTC circuits are especially important in the pathophysiology of OCD.     

Cortical Thickness,Surface Area and Subcortical Volume Differentially Contribute to Cognitive Heterogeneity in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is often associated with cognitive deficits, although their severity varies considerably between patients. Recently, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to show that individual differences in gray matter (GM) volume relate to cognitive heterogeneity in PD. VBM does, however, not differentiate between cortical thickness (CTh) and surface area (SA), which might be independently affected in PD. We therefore re-analyzed our cohort using the surface-based method FreeSurfer, and investigated (i) CTh, SA, and (sub)cortical GM volume differences between 93 PD patients and 45 matched controls, and (ii) the relation between these structural measures and cognitive performance on six neuropsychological tasks within the PD group. We found cortical thinning in PD patients in the left pericalcarine gyrus, extending to cuneus, precuneus and lingual areas and left inferior parietal cortex, bilateral rostral middle frontal cortex, and right cuneus, and increased cortical surface area in the left pars triangularis. Within the PD group, we found negative correlations between (i) CTh of occipital areas and performance on a verbal memory task, (ii) SA and volume of the frontal cortex and visuospatial memory performance, and, (iii) volume of the right thalamus and scores on two verbal fluency tasks. Our primary findings illustrate that i) CTh and SA are differentially affected in PD, and ii) VBM and FreeSurfer yield non-overlapping results in an identical dataset. We argue that this discrepancy is due to technical differences and the subtlety of the PD-related structural changes.     

Different Regional Gray Matter Loss in Recent Onset PTSD and Non PTSD after a Single Prolonged Trauma Exposure

Objective

Gray matter loss in the limbic structures was found in recent onset post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. In the present study, we measured regional gray matter volume in trauma survivors to verify the hypothesis that stress may cause different regional gray matter loss in trauma survivors with and without recent onset PTSD.

Method

High resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were obtained from coal mine flood disaster survivors with (n = 10) and without (n = 10) recent onset PTSD and 20 no trauma exposed normal controls. The voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method was used to measure the regional gray matter volume in three groups, the correlations of PTSD symptom severities with the gray matter volume in trauma survivors were also analyzed by multiple regression.

Results

Compared with normal controls, recent onset PTSD patients had smaller gray matter volume in left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and non PTSD subjects had smaller gray matter volume in the right pulvinar and left pallidum. The gray matter volume of the trauma survivors correlated negatively with CAPS scores in the right frontal lobe, left anterior and middle cingulate cortex, bilateral cuneus cortex, right middle occipital lobe, while in the recent onset PTSD, the gray matter volume correlated negatively with CAPS scores in bilateral superior medial frontal lobe and right ACC.

Conclusion

The present study identified gray matter loss in different regions in recent onset PTSD and non PTSD after a single prolonged trauma exposure. The gray matter volume of left dorsal ACC associated with the development of PTSD, while the gray matter volume of right pulvinar and left pallidum associated with the response to the severe stress. The atrophy of the frontal and limbic cortices predicts the symptom severities of the PTSD.     

Dorsal Visual Pathway Changes in Patients with Comitant Extropia

Background

Strabismus is a disorder in which the eyes are misaligned. Persistent strabismus can lead to stereopsis impairment. The effect of strabismus on human brain is not unclear. The present study is to investigate whether the brain white structures of comitant exotropia patients are impaired using combined T1-weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

Principal Findings

Thirteen patients with comitant strabismus and twelve controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with acquisition of T1-weighted and diffusion tensor images. T1-weighted images were used to analyze the change in volume of white matter using optimized voxel-based morphology (VBM) and diffusion tensor images were used to detect the change in white matter fibers using voxel-based analysis of DTI in comitant extropia patients. VBM analysis showed that in adult strabismus, white matter volumes were smaller in the right middle occipital gyrus, right occipital lobe/cuneus, right supramarginal gyrus, right cingulate gyrus, right frontal lobe/sub-gyral, right inferior temporal gyrus, left parahippocampa gyrus, left cingulate gyrus, left occipital lobe/cuneus, left middle frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, and left postcentral gyrus, while no brain region with greater white matter volume was found. Voxel-based analysis of DTI showed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the right middle occipital gyrus and right supramarginal gyrus in strabismus patients, while brain region with increased FA value was found in the right inferior frontal gyrus.

Conclusion

By combining VBM and voxel-based analysis of DTI results, the study suggests that the dorsal visual pathway was abnormal or impaired in patients with comitant exotropia.     

Neuroanatomical circuitry associated with exploratory eye movement in schizophrenia: a voxel-based morphometric study

Schizophrenic patients present abnormalities in a variety of eye movement tasks. Exploratory eye movement (EEM) dysfunction appears to be particularly specific to schizophrenia. However, the underlying mechanisms of EEM dysfunction in schizophrenia are not clearly understood. To assess the potential neuroanatomical substrates of EEM, we recorded EEM performance and conducted a voxel-based morphometric analysis of gray matter in 33 schizophrenic patients and 29 well matched healthy controls. In schizophrenic patients, decreased responsive search score (RSS) and widespread gray matter density (GMD) reductions were observed. Moreover, the RSS was positively correlated with GMD in distributed brain regions in schizophrenic patients. Furthermore, in schizophrenic patients, some brain regions with neuroanatomical deficits overlapped with some ones associated with RSS. These brain regions constituted an occipito-tempro-frontal circuitry involved in visual information processing and eye movement control, including the left calcarine cortex [Brodmann area (BA) 17], the left cuneus (BA 18), the left superior occipital cortex (BA 18/19), the left superior frontal gyrus (BA 6), the left cerebellum, the right lingual cortex (BA 17/18), the right middle occipital cortex (BA19), the right inferior temporal cortex (BA 37), the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46) and bilateral precentral gyri (BA 6) extending to the frontal eye fields (FEF, BA 8). To our knowledge, we firstly reported empirical evidence that gray matter loss in the occipito-tempro-frontal neuroanatomical circuitry of visual processing system was associated with EEM performance in schizophrenia, which may be helpful for the future effort to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms for EEM disturbances in schizophrenia.     

Anatomical and functional deficits in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Background

Anatomical and functional deficits have been studied in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, it is unclear whether and how the anatomical deficits are related to the functional alterations. Present study aims to characterize the association between anatomical and functional deficits in MCI patients.

Methods

Seventeen amnestic MCI patients and 18 healthy aging controls were scanned using a T1 Weighted MPRAGE sequence and a gradient-echo echo-planar imaging sequence. Clinical severity of MCI patients was evaluated by using Clinical Dementia Rating, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clock Drawing Test, Auditory Verbal Learning Test and Activities of Daily Living. VBM with DARTEL was used to characterize the gray matter deficits in MCI. Regional amplitude of low-frequency (0.01–0.08 Hz) fluctuations (ALFF) was used to evaluate regional functional alteration in MCI and fractional ALFF(fALFF) in slow 4 (0.027–0.073 Hz) and slow 5 (0.01–0.027 Hz) were also calculated.

Results

Significantly decreased gray matter volume (GMV) was observed in amnestic MCI group mainly in bilateral prefrontal, left temporal and posterior cingulate cortex. Significant positive correlation was observed between the GMV in left inferior frontal gyrus and MMSE scores. Interestingly, decreased ALFF/fALFF was revealed in MCI group compared to controls mainly in prefrontal, left parietal regions and right fusiform gyrus, while the increased ALFF/fALFF was found in limbic and midbrain. Furthermore, the changes of fALFF in MCI in the slow-5 band were greater than those in the slow-4. No significant correlation was found between the morphometric and functional results.

Conclusions

Findings from the study document that wide spread brain volume reduction accompanied with decreased and increased regional function in MCI, while the anatomical and functional changes were independently. Therefore, the combination of structural and functional MRI methods would provide complementary information and together advance our understanding of the pathophysiology underlying the symptoms of MCI.