Whole-brain computational modeling reveals disruption of microscale brain dynamics in HIV infected individuals

Abstract

In this study, we adopted the relaxed mean-field dynamic modeling to investigate structural and functional connectivity in forty-two HIV-infected subjects before and after 12-week of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) and compared them with forty-six age-matched healthy subjects. Microscale brain dynamics were modeled by a set of parameters including two region-specific microscale brain properties, recurrent connection strengths, and subcortical inputs. We also analyzed the relationship between the model parameters (i.e. the recurrent connection and subcortical inputs) and functional network topological characterizations. The results show that untreated HIV-infected individuals have disrupted local brain dynamics that in part correlate with network topological measurements. Notably, after 12 weeks of cART, both the microscale brain dynamics and the network topological measurements improved and were closer to those in the healthy brain. This was also associated with improved cognitive performance, suggesting that improvement in local brain dynamics translates into clinical improvement.

Human immunodeficiency virus‐related decreases in corpus callosal integrity and corresponding increases in functional connectivity

“…To our knowledge, only one study has investigated large‐scale brain network organization. Zhuang et al (2021), who used graph theory, did not find a relationship between white matter abnormalities and whole‐brain network organization. These studies support the idea that structural abnormalities are related to abnormal brain function in PLWH but also suggest the whole‐brain network organization may not be as strongly impacted.…”