Regional activity alterations in Parkinson’s disease patients with anxiety disorders: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have revealed alteration of functional connectivity (FC) in Parkinson’s disease patients with anxiety (PD-A), but local brain activities associated with anxiety in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients remain to be elucidated. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis was employed to investigate alterations of regional brain activities in PD-A patients.MethodsResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were acquired from 42 PD-A patients, 41 PD patients without anxiety (PD-NA), and 40 age-and gender-matched healthy control (HC) subjects. ReHo analysis was used to investigate the synchronization of neuronal activities in brain regions in the three groups. The relationship between ReHo value and anxiety score in the PD-A group was also investigated.ResultsParkinson’s disease patients with anxiety showed increased ReHo values in the bilateral frontal lobes, caudate nucleus, and anterior cingulate gyrus [Gaussian random field (GRF) correction, voxel size p < 0.01, cluster size p < 0.05], compared with PD-NA patients and HC subjects, but the ReHo values of the right cerebellar hemisphere and posterior cerebellar lobe decreased (GRF correction, voxel size p < 0.01, cluster size p < 0.05). The increased ReHo values of the right superior frontal gyrus (r = 0.633, p = 0.001) and anterior cingulate gyrus (r = 0.45, p = 0.01) were positively correlated with anxiety scores in PD-A patients.ConclusionThe development of PD-A may be associated with dysfunctional local activities in multiple brain regions, including the frontal cortex, cerebella, basal ganglia, and limbic system. Abnormal ReHo values in these brain regions may serve as neuroimaging markers for the early diagnosis of PD-A. The results suggest that using ReHo analysis to identify functional changes in core regions may advance our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying PD-A.

A functional medicine and food homology composition discovery based on disease-related target and data mining against cardiac remodeling

“…Animal studies using rs-fMRI are often applied to nervous system diseases. For instance, regional homogeneity alterations of rs-fMRI were used to examine chronic rhinosinusitis with olfactory dysfunction 65 , mapping the aberrant brain functional connectivity in new daily persistent headache 66 , or applied in revealing the aberrant large-scale network interactions across psychiatric disorders 67 .…”

Development of anxiety in early Parkinson's disease: A clinical and biomarker study

“…There is clinical heterogeneity, and a significant proportion of PD patients have anxiety associated with depression [4, 5]. Psychosocial factors or abnormal learning may also contribute to anxiety in patients with PD, and changes in other neurotransmitters, such as orexin‐A [6] and in extrastriatal brain regions, have also been implicated [7, 8]. Furthermore, there is some evidence that anxiety in PD and non‐PD populations can be associated with cognitive decline [9, 10].…”

High-level anxiety is associated with worse clinical symptoms and aberrant brain networks in Parkinson’s disease

“…Additionally, the functional connectivity between amygdala and hippocampus is negatively correlated with anxiety symptoms 43 . However, it seems that the development of anxiety in PD is associated with more widespread abnormal activities of multiple brain regions, such as frontal cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and limbic system 45 . Therefore, the occurrence of anxiety in PD may be associated with multiple brain networks.…”