Aberrant resting-state functional connectivity and topological properties of the subcortical network in functional dyspepsia patients

Abstract

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a disorder of gut-brain interaction. Previous studies have demonstrated a wide range of abnormalities in functional brain activity and connectivity patterns in FD. However, the connectivity pattern of the subcortical network (SCN), which is a hub of visceral information transmission and processing, remains unclear in FD patients. The study compared the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and the global and nodal topological properties of SCN between 109 FD patients and 98 healthy controls, and then explored the correlations between the connectivity metrics and clinical symptoms in FD patients. The results demonstrated that FD patients manifested the increased rsFC in seventeen edges among the SCN, decreased small-worldness and local efficiency in SCN, as well as increased nodal efficiency and nodal degree centrality in the anterior thalamus than healthy controls (p < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Moreover, the rsFC of the right anterior thalamus-left nucleus accumbens edge was significantly correlated with the NDSI scores (r = 0.255, p = 0.008, uncorrected) and NDLQI scores (r = −0.241, p = 0.013, uncorrected), the nodal efficiency of right anterior thalamus was significantly correlated with NDLQI scores (r = 0.204, p = 0.036, uncorrected) in FD patients. This study indicated the abnormal rsFC pattern, as well as global and nodal topological properties of the SCN, especially the bilateral anterior thalamus in FD patients, which enhanced our understanding of the central pathophysiology of FD and will lay the foundation for the objective diagnosis of FD and the development of new therapies.

Disrupted topological organization of functional brain networks in traumatic axonal injury

“…This schematic structure reflects the network connectivity and offers an integrative approach to explore the communication and transmission of information between regions in the whole brain by investigating the different properties of the cerebral networks, including integration, segregation, centrality, and small-world properties. An increasing number of studies used graph theory to investigate the effects on brain functional networks of several neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (John et al, 2017), autism spectrum disorder (Chen et al, 2021), schizophrenia (Liu et al, 2016), and functional dyspepsia (Zhang et al, 2022). A recent study reported that patients with cerebral small vessel disease and microbleeds exhibited significantly reduced clustering coefficient, global efficiency, and local efficiency, and an increased shortest-path length, compared to controls and patients with the same disease and no cerebral microbleeds.…”

Disrupted topological organization of functional brain networks in traumatic axonal injury

“…This schematic structure re ects the network connectivity and offers an integrative approach to explore the communication and transmission of information between regions in the whole brain by investigating the different properties of the cerebral networks, including integration, segregation, centrality, and smallworld properties. An increasing number of studies used graph theory to investigate the effects on brain functional networks of several neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (John et al, 2017), autism spectrum disorder (Chen et al, 2021), schizophrenia (Liu et al, 2016), and functional dyspepsia (Zhang et al, 2022). A recent study reported that patients with cerebral small vessel disease and microbleeds exhibited signi cantly reduced clustering coe cient, global e ciency, and local e ciency, and an increased shortest-path length, compared to controls and patients with the same disease and no cerebral microbleeds.…”