Cortical atrophy and leukoaraiosis, imaging markers of cerebrovascular small vessel disease, are associated with driving behavior changes among cognitively normal older adults

Babulal, Ganesh M.; Chen, Ling; Carr, David B.; Johnson, Ann; Shimony, Joshua S.; Doherty, Jason M.; Murphy, Samantha; Walker, Alexis; Domash, Hailee; Hornbeck, Russ C.; Keefe, Sarah; Flores, Shaney; Raji, Cyrus A.; Morris, John C.; Ances, Beau M.; Benzinger, Tammie L.S.

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2023.120616

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Gray matter volume (GMV) has been commonly applied in many studies as an essential measurement in recent years, and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is an excellent tool that accurately evaluates GM alterations in brains [8,9]. Previous investigations using VBM methods documented that CSVD patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and motor impairment have decreased GMV in multiple brain regions [10,11]; the atrophy of whole brain GMV is closely related to the damage of WM [12][13][14][15], and local WMH affected GMV in remote areas [16]. These studies have shown that GM in cognition-related brain areas exhibit morphological abnormalities in CSVD patients, but these modifications have not been able to explain the interactions and connections between the GM structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupted Gray Matter Networks Associated with Cognitive Dysfunction in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

Gao,

Wang,

Xin

et al. 2023

Brain Sciences

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This study aims to investigate the disrupted topological organization of gray matter (GM) structural networks in cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) patients with cerebral microbleeds (CMBs). Subject-wise structural networks were constructed from GM volumetric features of 49 CSVD patients with CMBs (CSVD-c), 121 CSVD patients without CMBs (CSVD-n), and 74 healthy controls. The study used graph theory to analyze the global and regional properties of the network and their correlation with cognitive performance. We found that both the control and CSVD groups exhibited efficient small-world organization in GM networks. However, compared to controls, CSVD-c and CSVD-n patients exhibited increased global and local efficiency (Eglob/Eloc) and decreased shortest path lengths (Lp), indicating increased global integration and local specialization in structural networks. Although there was no significant global topology change, partially reorganized hub distributions were found between CSVD-c and CSVD-n patients. Importantly, regional topology in nonhub regions was significantly altered between CSVD-c and CSVD-n patients, including the bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, and right MTG, which are involved in the default mode network (DMN) and sensorimotor functional modules. Intriguingly, the global metrics (Eglob, Eloc, and Lp) were significantly correlated with MoCA, AVLT, and SCWT scores in the control group but not in the CSVD-c and CSVD-n groups. In contrast, the global metrics were significantly correlated with the SDMT score in the CSVD-s and CSVD-n groups but not in the control group. Patients with CSVD show a disrupted balance between local specialization and global integration in their GM structural networks. The altered regional topology between CSVD-c and CSVD-n patients may be due to different etiological contributions, which may offer a novel understanding of the neurobiological processes involved in CSVD with CMBs.

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