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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurosci.

Sec. Brain Imaging Methods

Aberrant local and global neural activation patterns in pediatric Prader–Willi syndrome

Provisionally accepted
Jie LiuJie Liu1Min ZhuMin Zhu2Song PengSong Peng3,4Shuang DingShuang Ding1Longlun WangLonglun Wang1Wei TangWei Tang3,4Chunlan SunChunlan Sun1Jiaxin SuJiaxin Su1Zhongxin HuangZhongxin Huang3,4*Jinhua CaiJinhua Cai1*
  • 1Radiology, Children‘s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  • 2Endocrinology, Children‘s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
  • 3Radiology, Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children, Chongqing, China
  • 4Women and Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, chongqing, China

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Purpose: Although cognitive disorders in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) are linked to abnormalities in spontaneous neural activation and functional connectivity (FC), the specific neural activation patterns remain uncertain, especially in young children with PWS. Methods: The current study set out to explore specific local and global neural activation in pediatric PWS using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and seed-based whole brain FC. Information was gathered from 35 pediatric PWS patients and 33 healthy controls (HC). Both groups' ALFF and ReHo values were computed, and FC were constructed on the basis of altered ALFF and ReHo regions. The relationships between altered ALFF, ReHo, and FC and the Griffiths Developmental Scales (GDS) of the PWS group were analyzed using partial correlation analysis. Results: Both ALFF and ReHo exhibited decreases in occipital lobe, temporal lobe, and cingulate gyrus, and altered ReHo was present in parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and basal ganglia areas. Moreover, ALFF and ReHo also exhibited increases in occipital and temporal lobes. Decreased FC was detected in the visual network (VN), sensorimotor network (SMN), salience network (SAN), and default mode network (DMN). The SMN-, cingulate-, and occipital lobe-related neural activation patterns were significantly positively correlated with the GDS score. Conclusions: The PWS group was characterized mainly by decreased neuronal physiological function and the ReHo was similar to ALFF but more extensive. The decreased local and global brain neural activation patterns may serve as early physiological indicators of cognitive abnormalities.As a

Keywords: functional connectivity2, low-frequency fluctuations3, magnetic resonance imaging5, Prader-Willi syndrome1, regional homogeneity4

Received: 31 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.

Copyright: © 2026 Liu, Zhu, Peng, Ding, Wang, Tang, Sun, Su, Huang and Cai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Zhongxin Huang
Jinhua Cai

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Supplementary Material