Abnormal cortical atrophy and functional connectivity are associated with depression in Parkinson's disease

Weifang Yin; Anming Li; Baiyuan Yang; Chao Gao; Yanfei Hu; Zhenglong Luo; Yuxia Li; Yongyun Zhu; Chuanbin Zhou; Hui Ren; Shimei Li; Xinglong Yang

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.957997

Abnormal cortical atrophy and functional connectivity are associated with depression in Parkinson's disease

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Aug 31:14:957997. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.957997. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Weifang Yin¹, Anming Li¹, Baiyuan Yang², Chao Gao³, Yanfei Hu³, Zhenglong Luo¹, Yuxia Li¹, Yongyun Zhu¹, Chuanbin Zhou¹, Hui Ren¹, Shimei Li⁴, Xinglong Yang^{1

5

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Affiliations

¹ Department of Geriatric Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
² Department of Neurology, Chengdu Seventh People's Hospital, Chengdu, China.
³ Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
⁴ Department of Anesthesia, Kunming Xishan District People's Hospital, Kunming, China.
⁵ Yunnan Provincial Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Kunming, China.
⁶ Yunnan Province Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disease, Kunming, China.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association of altered cortical thickness and functional connectivity (FC) with depression in Parkinson's disease (PD).

Materials and methods: A total of 26 non-depressed PD patients (PD-ND), 30 PD patients with minor depression (PD-MnD), 32 PD patients with major depression (PD-MDD), and 30 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. Differences in cortical thickness among the four groups were assessed, and the results were used to analyze FC differences in regions of cortical atrophy. Binary logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were also performed to identify clinical features and neuroimaging biomarkers that might help in the prediction of PD-MDD.

Results: Patients with PD-MDD showed decreased cortical thickness compared to patients with PD-ND in the left superior temporal and right rostral middle frontal gyri (RMFG), as well as weak FC between the left superior temporal gyrus and right cerebellum posterior lobe and between right RMFG and right inferior frontal gyrus and insula. The combination of cortical thickness, FC, and basic clinical features showed strong potential for predicting PD-MDD based on the area under the ROC curve (0.927, 95% CI 0.854-0.999, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Patients with PD-MDD show extensive cortical atrophy and FC alterations, suggesting that cortical thickness and FC may be neuroimaging-based diagnostic biomarkers for PD-MDD.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; cortical atrophy; depression; functional connectivity; neuroimaging biomarkers.