AUTHOR=Wang Jingqi , Shang Ruihong , He Le , Zhou Rongsong , Chen Zhensen , Ma Yu , Li Xuesong 

TITLE=Prediction of Deep Brain Stimulation Outcome in Parkinson’s Disease With Connectome Based on Hemispheric Asymmetry

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.620750

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2021.620750

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is associated with motor and non-motor symptoms and caused by lack of dopamine in the substantia nigra of brain. Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is a widely accepted therapy of PD that mainly inserts electrodes into both sides of brain. Hemispherical asymmetry in brain network is considered to be a potential indicator for diagnosing PD patients. This study investigated the value of hemispheric brain connection asymmetry in predicting the DBS operation outcome in PD patients. Four types of brain connections, including left intra-hemispheric (LH) connection, right intra-hemispheric (RH) connection, inter-hemispheric homotopic (Ho) connection, and inter-hemispheric heterotopic (He) connection, were constructed based on the resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) performed before the DBS surgery. We used random forest for feature selecting and the Ridge model for predicting surgical outcome (i.e. improvement rate of motor function). The functional connectivity analysis showed that the brain has a right laterality: the RH networks has the best predictability (Pearsons’ r = 0.46, p = 4.4E-04) among the above four connections. Moreover, the ROI analysis indicated that Medio Ventral Occipital Cortex (MVOcC)-Superior Temporal Gyrus (STG) and Thalamus (Tha)-Precentral Gyrus (PrG) contributed most to the outcome prediction model for DBS without medication. This result provides more support for PD patients to evaluate DBS before surgery.