Deep brain stimulation (DBS) improves motor and non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Researchers mainly investigated the motor networks to reveal DBS mechanisms, with few studies extending to other networks. This study aimed to investigate multi-network modulation patterns using DBS in patients with PD.
Twenty-four patients with PD underwent 1.5 T functional MRI (fMRI) scans in both DBS-on and DBS-off states, with twenty-seven age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Default mode, sensorimotor, salience, and left and right frontoparietal networks were identified by using the independent component analysis. Power spectra and functional connectivity of these networks were calculated. In addition, multiregional connectivity was established from 15 selected regions extracted from the abovementioned networks. Comparisons were made among groups. Finally, correlation analyses were performed between the connectivity changes and symptom improvements.
Compared with HCs, PD-off showed abnormal power spectra and functional connectivity both within and among these networks. Some of the abovementioned abnormalities could be corrected by DBS, including increasing the power spectra in the sensorimotor network and modulating the parts of the ipsilateral functional connectivity in different regions centered in the frontoparietal network. Moreover, the DBS-induced functional connectivity changes were correlated with motor and depression improvements in patients with PD.
DBS modulated the abnormalities in multi-networks. The functional connectivity alterations were associated with motor and psychiatric improvements in PD. This study lays the foundation for large-scale brain network research on multi-network DBS modulation.