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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 16 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1497874
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of Neurogenesis in Cognitive Decline During Aging View all articles

Static and Dynamic FC in ACS Static and Dynamic Brain Functional Connectivity Patterns in Patients with Unilateral Moderate-to-Severe Asymptomatic Carotid Stenosis

Provisionally accepted
Junjun Wang Junjun Wang 1Linfeng Song Linfeng Song 1Binlin Tian Binlin Tian 1Li Yang Li Yang 1Xiaoyu Gu Xiaoyu Gu 1Xu Chen Xu Chen 1Lei Gao Lei Gao 2*Lin Jiang Lin Jiang 1*
  • 1 Department of Radiology, First People’s Hospital of Zunyi, Zunyi, Guizhou Province, China
  • 2 Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

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

    Background and Purpose: Asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS) is an independent risk factor for ischemic stroke and vascular cognitive impairment, affecting cognitive function across multiple domains. This study aimed to explore differences in static and dynamic intrinsic functional connectivity and temporal dynamics between patients with ACS and those without carotid stenosis.We recruited 30 patients with unilateral moderate-to-severe (stenosis ≥ 50%) ACS and 30 demographically-matched healthy controls. All participants underwent neuropsychological testing and 3.0T brain MRI scans. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) was used to calculate both static and dynamic functional connectivity. Dynamic independent component analysis (dICA) was employed to extract independent circuits/networks and to Static and Dynamic FC in ACS detect time-frequency modulation at the circuit level. Further imaging-behavior associations identified static and dynamic functional connectivity patterns that reflect cognitive decline.Results: ACS patients showed altered functional connectivity in multiple brain regions and networks compared to controls. Increased connectivity was observed in the inferior parietal lobule, frontal lobe, and temporal lobe. dICA further revealed changes in the temporal frequency of connectivity in the salience network. Significant differences in the temporal variability of connectivity were found in the fronto-parietal network, dorsal attention network, sensory-motor network, language network, and visual network. The temporal parameters of these brain networks were also related to overall cognition and memory.Conclusions: These results suggest that ACS involves not only changes in the static largescale brain network connectivity but also dynamic temporal variations, which parallel overall cognition and memory recall.

    Keywords: Carotid Stenosis, fMRI, Dynamic Functional Connectivity, dynamic independent component analysis Asymptomatic Ccarotid Sstenosis, functional connectivity, Dynamic independent component analysis

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 31 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Song, Tian, Yang, Gu, Chen, Gao and Jiang. 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:
    Lei Gao, Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei Province, China
    Lin Jiang, Department of Radiology, First People’s Hospital of Zunyi, Zunyi, 563000, Guizhou Province, China

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