Topological Alterations of the Intrinsic Brain Network in Patients with Functional Dyspepsia.

Previous studies reported that integrated information in the brain ultimately determines the subjective experience of patients with chronic pain, but how the information is integrated in the brain connectome of functional dyspepsia (FD) patients remains largely unclear. The study aimed to quantify the topological changes of the brain network in FD patients. Small-world properties, network efficiency and nodal centrality were utilized to measure the changes in topological architecture in 25 FD patients and 25 healthy controls based on functional magnetic resonance imaging. Pearson’s correlation assessed the relationship of each topological property with clinical symptoms. FD patients showed an increase of clustering coefficients and local efficiency relative to controls from the perspective of a whole network as well as elevated nodal centrality in the right orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus, left anterior cingulate gyrus and left hippocampus, and decreased nodal centrality in the right posterior cingulate gyrus, left cuneus, right putamen, left middle occipital gyrus and right inferior occipital gyrus. Moreover, the centrality in the anterior cingulate gyrus was significantly associated with symptom severity and duration in FD patients. Nevertheless, the inclusion of anxiety and depression scores as covariates erased the group differences in nodal centralities in the orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus and hippocampus. The results suggest topological disruption of the functional brain networks in FD patients, presumably in response to disturbances of sensory information integrated with emotion, memory, pain modulation, and selective attention in patients.

先前的研究报道，大脑中的整合信息最终决定了慢性疼痛患者的主观体验，但在功能性消化不良（FD）患者的大脑连接组中信息是如何整合的在很大程度上仍不清楚。本研究旨在量化FD患者大脑网络的拓扑结构变化。 基于功能磁共振成像，利用小世界属性、网络效率和节点中心性来测量25例FD患者和25例健康对照者拓扑结构的变化。皮尔逊相关性评估了每种拓扑属性与临床症状的关系。 从整个网络的角度来看，FD患者相对于对照组显示出聚类系数和局部效率的增加，并且在额下回右侧眶部、左侧前扣带回和左侧海马体的节点中心性升高，而在右侧后扣带回、左侧楔叶、右侧壳核、左侧枕中回和右侧枕下回的节点中心性降低。此外，前扣带回的中心性与FD患者的症状严重程度和持续时间显著相关。然而，将焦虑和抑郁评分作为协变量纳入后，消除了额下回眶部和海马体节点中心性的组间差异。 研究结果表明FD患者功能性大脑网络存在拓扑结构破坏，可能是由于患者的感觉信息与情绪、记忆、疼痛调节和选择性注意的整合受到干扰所致。