TY - JOUR
T1 - Global Network Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease with Minimum Spanning Trees
AU - Canario, Edgar
AU - Chen, Donna
AU - Han, Ying
AU - Niu, Haijing
AU - Biswal, Bharat
N1 - Funding Information:
Edgar Canario gratefully acknowledges receiving a research stipend from the National Science Foundation through the Garden State-LSAMP (NSF Award 1909824).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022-IOS Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/8/1
Y1 - 2022/8/1
N2 - Background: A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a unique efficient network comprising the necessary connections needed to connect all regions in a network while retaining the lowest possible cost of connection weight. Objective: This study aimed to utilize functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to analyze brain activity in different regions and then construct MST-based regions to characterize the brain topologies of participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and normal controls (NC). Methods: A 46 channel fNIRS setup was used on all participants, with correlation being calculated for each channel pair. An MST was constructed from the resulting correlation matrix, from which graph theory measures were calculated. The average number of connections within a lobe in the left versus right hemisphere was calculated to identify which lobes displayed and abnormal amount of connectivity. Results: Compared to those in the MCI group, the AD group showed a less integrated network structure, with a higher characteristic path length, but lower leaf fraction, maximum degree, and degree divergence. The AD group also showed a higher number of connections in the frontal lobe within the left hemisphere and a lower number between hemispheric frontal lobes as compared to MCI. Conclusion: These results indicate a deviation in network structure and connectivity within patient groups that is consistent with the theory of dysconnectivity for AD. Additionally, the AD group showed strong correlations between the Hamilton depression rating scale and different graph metrics, suggesting a link between network organization and the recurrence of depression in AD.
AB - Background: A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a unique efficient network comprising the necessary connections needed to connect all regions in a network while retaining the lowest possible cost of connection weight. Objective: This study aimed to utilize functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to analyze brain activity in different regions and then construct MST-based regions to characterize the brain topologies of participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and normal controls (NC). Methods: A 46 channel fNIRS setup was used on all participants, with correlation being calculated for each channel pair. An MST was constructed from the resulting correlation matrix, from which graph theory measures were calculated. The average number of connections within a lobe in the left versus right hemisphere was calculated to identify which lobes displayed and abnormal amount of connectivity. Results: Compared to those in the MCI group, the AD group showed a less integrated network structure, with a higher characteristic path length, but lower leaf fraction, maximum degree, and degree divergence. The AD group also showed a higher number of connections in the frontal lobe within the left hemisphere and a lower number between hemispheric frontal lobes as compared to MCI. Conclusion: These results indicate a deviation in network structure and connectivity within patient groups that is consistent with the theory of dysconnectivity for AD. Additionally, the AD group showed strong correlations between the Hamilton depression rating scale and different graph metrics, suggesting a link between network organization and the recurrence of depression in AD.
KW - Amyloid
KW - cognitive decline
KW - depression
KW - functional neuroimaging
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U2 - 10.3233/JAD-215573
DO - 10.3233/JAD-215573
M3 - Article
C2 - 35938244
AN - SCOPUS:85138164247
SN - 1387-2877
VL - 89
SP - 571
EP - 581
JO - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
JF - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
IS - 2
ER -