AUTHOR=Gan Caiting , Zhang Heng , Sun Huimin , Cao Xingyue , Wang Lina , Zhang Kezhong , Yuan Yongsheng 

TITLE=Aberrant brain topological organization and granger causality connectivity in Parkinson’s disease with impulse control disorders

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2024.1364402

DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2024.1364402

ISSN=1663-4365

ABSTRACT=Impulse control disorders (ICD) refer to the common neuropsychiatric complication of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The white matter (WM) topological organization and their impact on brain networks remained to be established. Seventeen PD patients with ICD (PD-ICD), 17 without ICD (PD-NICD), and 18 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Graph theoretic analyses and Granger causality analyses were combined to investigate WM topological organization and the directional connection patterns of key regions. Compared with PD-NICD, ICD patients showed abnormal global properties, covering decreased shortest path length (Lp) and increased global efficiency (Eg). Locally, ICD group manifested abnormal nodal topological parameters predominantly in the left middle cingulate gyrus (MCG) and left superior cerebellum. Decreased directional connectivity from left MCG to right medial superior frontal gyrus was observed in PD-ICD group. ICD severity was significantly correlated with Lp and Eg. Our findings reflected that ICD patients had excessively optimized WM topological organization, abnormally strengthened nodal structure connections within the reward network and aberrant casual connectivity in specific cortical-limbic circuit. We hypothesized that the aberrant reward and motor inhibition circuit could play the crucial role in the emergence of ICD.