Increased functional connectivity of white-matter in myotonic dystrophy type 1

Jing Li; Jie Li; Pei Huang; Li-Na Huang; Qing-Guo Ding; Linlin Zhan; Mengting Li; Jiaxi Zhang; Hongqiang Zhang; Lulu Cheng; Huayun Li; Dong-Qiang Liu; Hai-Yan Zhou; Xi-Ze Jia

doi:10.3389/fnins.2022.953742

Increased functional connectivity of white-matter in myotonic dystrophy type 1

Front Neurosci. 2022 Aug 1:16:953742. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.953742. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jing Li^{1

2}, Jie Li^{3

4}, Pei Huang⁵, Li-Na Huang⁶, Qing-Guo Ding⁶, Linlin Zhan⁷, Mengting Li^{1

2}, Jiaxi Zhang^{1

2}, Hongqiang Zhang⁶, Lulu Cheng^{8

9}, Huayun Li^{1

2}, Dong-Qiang Liu^{3

4}, Hai-Yan Zhou⁵, Xi-Ze Jia^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China.
² Key Laboratory of Intelligent Education Technology and Application of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China.
³ Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Dalian, China.
⁵ Department of Neurology & Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Department of Radiology, Changshu No. 2 People's Hospital, The Affiliated Changshu Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Changshu, China.
⁷ Faculty of Western Languages, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China.
⁸ School of Foreign Studies, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, China.
⁹ Shanghai Center for Research in English Language Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Background: Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common and dominant inherited neuromuscular dystrophy disease in adults, involving multiple organs, including the brain. Although structural measurements showed that DM1 is predominantly associated with white-matter damage, they failed to reveal the dysfunction of the white-matter. Recent studies have demonstrated that the functional activity of white-matter is of great significance and has given us insights into revealing the mechanisms of brain disorders.

Materials and methods: Using resting-state fMRI data, we adopted a clustering analysis to identify the white-matter functional networks and calculated functional connectivity between these networks in 16 DM1 patients and 18 healthy controls (HCs). A two-sample t-test was conducted between the two groups. Partial correlation analyzes were performed between the altered white-matter FC and clinical MMSE or HAMD scores.

Results: We identified 13 white-matter functional networks by clustering analysis. These white-matter functional networks can be divided into a three-layer network (superficial, middle, and deep) according to their spatial distribution. Compared to HCs, DM1 patients showed increased FC within intra-layer white-matter and inter-layer white-matter networks. For intra-layer networks, the increased FC was mainly located in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, prefrontal cortex, and corpus callosum networks. For inter-layer networks, the increased FC of DM1 patients is mainly located in the superior corona radiata and deep networks.

Conclusion: Results demonstrated the abnormalities of white-matter functional connectivity in DM1 located in both intra-layer and inter-layer white-matter networks and suggested that the pathophysiology mechanism of DM1 may be related to the white-matter functional dysconnectivity. Furthermore, it may facilitate the treatment development of DM1.

Keywords: functional connectivity; myotonic dystrophy type 1; resting-state fMRI; white-matter; white-matter functional networks.