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12-02-2024 | Parkinson's Disease | Original Article

Large-scale functional network connectivity mediates the association between nigral neuromelanin hypopigmentation and motor impairment in Parkinson’s disease

Authors: Su Yan, Jun Lu, Yuanhao Li, Hongquan Zhu, Tian Tian, Yuanyuan Qin, Wenzhen Zhu

Published in: Brain Structure and Function | Issue 4/2024

Abstract

Neuromelanin hypopigmentation within substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) reflects the loss of pigmented neurons, which in turn contributes to the dysfunction of the nigrostriatal and striato-cortical pathways in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Our study aims to investigate the relationships between SN degeneration manifested by neuromelanin reduction, functional connectivity (FC) among large-scale brain networks, and motor impairment in PD. This study included 68 idiopathic PD patients and 32 age-, sex- and education level-matched healthy controls who underwent neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI, and motor assessments. SN integrity was measured using the subregional contrast-to-noise ratio calculated from neuromelanin-sensitive MRI. Resting-state FC maps were obtained based on the independent component analysis. Subsequently, we performed partial correlation and mediation analyses in SN degeneration, network disruption, and motor impairment for PD patients. We found significantly decreased neuromelanin within SN and widely altered inter-network FCs, mainly involved in the basal ganglia (BG), sensorimotor and frontoparietal networks in PD. In addition, decreased neuromelanin content was negatively correlated with the dorsal sensorimotor network (dSMN)-medial visual network connection (P = 0.012) and dSMN-BG connection (P = 0.004). Importantly, the effect of SN neuromelanin hypopigmentation on motor symptom severity in PD is partially mediated by the increased connectivity strength between BG and dSMN (indirect effect = − 1.358, 95% CI: − 2.997, − 0.147). Our results advanced our understanding of the interactions between neuromelanin hypopigmentation in SN and altered FCs of functional networks in PD and suggested the potential of multimodal metrics for early diagnosis and monitoring the response to therapies.

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Title: Large-scale functional network connectivity mediates the association between nigral neuromelanin hypopigmentation and motor impairment in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Su Yan
Jun Lu
Yuanhao Li
Hongquan Zhu
Tian Tian
Yuanyuan Qin
Wenzhen Zhu
Publication date: 12-02-2024
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keywords: Parkinson's Disease
Hypopigmentation
Published in: Brain Structure and Function / Issue 4/2024
Print ISSN: 1863-2653
Electronic ISSN: 1863-2661
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-024-02761-z

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Large-scale functional network connectivity mediates the association between nigral neuromelanin hypopigmentation and motor impairment in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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