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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Volume 16 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1465181
This article is part of the Research Topic Progress in the Assessment and Intervention of Neurocognitive Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases View all 4 articles

Trade-offs among brain structural network characteristics across the cognitive decline process in cerebral small vessel disease

Provisionally accepted
Yao Wang Yao Wang 1*Mianxin Liu Mianxin Liu 2Yuewei Chen Yuewei Chen 1Yage Qiu Yage Qiu 1Xu Han Xu Han 1Qun Xu Qun Xu 1Dinggang Shen Dinggang Shen 3Yan Zhou Yan Zhou 1
  • 1 Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Shanghai, China
  • 3 School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives To investigate the potential trade-offs among brain structural network characteristics across different stages of cognitive impairment in cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) based on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods A total of 264 CSVD patients, including 95 patients with non-cognitive impairment (NCI), 142 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 27 with vascular dementia (VaD), and 30 healthy controls (HC) underwent cognitive test and brain diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The brain structural network was constructed using connections between 90 cortical and subcortical regions. Network characteristics, including sparsity, redundancy, global efficiency (Eg), and local efficiency (Eloc), were calculated. Results Sparsity and redundancy significantly declined in the NCI group compared to the HC group. Eg was significantly reduced in the MCI group compared to the NCI group. All network characteristics declined in the VaD group compared to the MCI group. In the NCI group, both sparsity and redundancy were significantly positively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). In the MCI group, there was significant positive correlation between Eg and MoCA. In the VaD group, there was significant negative correlation between Eloc and MoCA. When controlling for sparsity, Eloc exhibited a significant negative correlation with Eg in all three CSVD groups, while redundancy displayed a significant negative correlation with Eg specifically in MCI group. Conclusion Our study provides evidence for the heterogeneous alterations in brain structural network across different stages of cognitive impairment in CSVD. The disconnection of brain structural network at NCI stage is mainly the loss of redundant connections. The decline of Eg is the vital factor for cognitive impairment at MCI stage. The decline of all network characteristics is the prominent manifestation at VaD stage. Throughout the cognitive decline process in CSVD, there are trade-offs among the brain network wiring cost, integration, and segregation.

    Keywords: Cerebral small vessel disease, cognitive impairment, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Network efficiency, brain reserve

    Received: 15 Jul 2024; Accepted: 15 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Liu, Chen, Qiu, Han, Xu, Shen and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yao Wang, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

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