Graph Theory Further Revealed Visual Spatial Working Memory Impairment in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Background Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients may experience cognitive impairments in Visuospatial Working Memory (VSWM), significantly impacting their quality of life. However, the mechanisms underlying these impairments remain poorly understood. Methods We studied functional MRI and graph theory analysis to investigate changes in functional connectivity networks during the Mental Rotation Task (MRT) in IBD patients. Twenty IBD patients (13 males, 7 females; mean age = 34.95 ± 13.80 years; mean disease duration = 2.43 ± 2.37 years) participated in the study. Exclusion criteria encompassed recent use of analgesics, 5-Aminosalicylate, corticosteroids, or immunosuppressants within the past three months. Additionally, we recruited 20 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls for comparison. Results Compared to a control group, IBD patients exhibited significantly longer reaction times and reduced accuracy during the MRT. Our analysis revealed abnormalities in multiple nodal attributes within the functional connectivity network, particularly in regions such as the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex, right supplementary motor area, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, and bilateral anterior temporal lobe. We observed that the nodal efficiency in the left temporal pole is negatively correlated with Red Blood Cell Distribution Width (RDW) and positively correlated with response time of MRT. Conclusion Our findings revealed notable abnormalities in multiple node attributes among IBD patients during MRT, providing evidence of cognitive impairments in VSWM in IBD patients. This study found RDW maybe can serve as a clinical indicator for predicting early VSWM impairment in patients with IBD.

The impact of cognitive functions, psychological disorders, and coping strategies on quality of life and disease outcomes in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases: A cross-sectional study

“…[ 30 ] This may explain the negative impact of WM deficits on the QoL in these patients. A recent MRI study documented abnormalities in key WM-related regions of the brain among IBD patients, [ 32 ] including the orbitofrontal cortex which plays a crucial role in modulating attentional networks essential for optimum WM performance. [ 32 ] This may explain the associations observed in WM but not processing speed in our study.…”

“…A recent MRI study documented abnormalities in key WM-related regions of the brain among IBD patients, [ 32 ] including the orbitofrontal cortex which plays a crucial role in modulating attentional networks essential for optimum WM performance. [ 32 ] This may explain the associations observed in WM but not processing speed in our study. Chronic pain conditions such as those observed in IBD also impact WM, possibly through underlying attentional bias mechanisms; these may further contribute to the WM associations documented in our study.…”