Disruption of brain regional homogeneity and functional connectivity in male NAFLD: evidence from a pilot resting-state fMRI study

作者：Kun Shu, Xinjian Ye, Jiawen Song, Xiaoyan Huang, Shihan Cui, Yongjin Zhou, Xiaozheng Liu, Lu Han, Zhihan Yan, Kun Liu · 发表于：BMC Psychiatry · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1186/s12888-023-05071-6 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

BACKGROUND: The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remain unknown. Cognitive changes may be caused by brain alterations in neural activity and functional connectivity (FC). AIM: This study aims to investigate the alterations between spontaneous brain neural activity and FC in male NAFLD patients and the relationship of neural activity with cognitive performance. METHODS: In this prospective study, 33 male pre-cirrhosis NAFLD subjects and 20 male controls matched for age, education level, and body mass index. All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans and neuropsychological examinations. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis was used to investigate the brain function in NAFLD, and regions with significantly altered ReHo were selected as seeds for subsequent FC analysis. Partial correlation analysis was used to assess the relationships between altered ReHo measures and cognitive performance indicators. RESULTS: Compared with the controls, the NAFLD patients showed increased ReHo in the opercular part of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFGoperc) and decreased ReHo in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and left superior parietal gyrus (SPG). The subsequent FC analysis showed increased FC between these regions (right IFGoperc, right MFG, and left SPG) and nodes of the default mode network (DMN) (such as left supraMarginal, left median cingulate and paracingulate gyri,...