ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Syst. Neurosci.
This article is part of the Research TopicUnraveling Neural Network Dynamics: Integrating Artificial Neural Networks and Biological Network Models in Systems NeuroscienceView all articles
Network localization of functional and structural correlates of apathy in Parkinson's disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yancheng Third People's Hospital, Yancheng, China
- 2Binhai Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Yancheng, PR China, yancheng, China
- 3Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
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Background: Apathy is a prevalent and debilitating neuropsychiatric syndrome in Parkinson’s disease (PD). While numerous functional and structural brain studies have investigated the neural correlates of PD with apathy (PD-A), their findings have often been inconsistent. Network neuroscience suggests that such a syndrome may be best understood as disruptions of distributed brain networks. Methods: We conducted a systematic review to identify whole-brain studies reporting functional or structural alterations in patients with PD-A compared to those without apathy (PD-NA), or studies correlating apathy severity. Significant peak coordinates (195 foci from 24 studies) were integrated using functional connectivity network mapping (FCNM), leveraging resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from 1,093 healthy Human Connectome Project (HCP) participants. We quantified spatial overlap between the PD-A-associated network and canonical brain networks. Results: The FCNM analysis revealed that the spatially diverse brain regions previously reported in the PD-A literature converged onto a common functional connectivity network. This network predominantly involved the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior insula, bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral caudate nucleus, and bilateral thalamus. The PD-A associated network showed the highest spatial overlap with the ventral attention network (VAN; 34.05%), subcortical network (28.47%), and frontoparietal network (FPN; 24.89%). Robustness analyses confirmed these findings. Conclusions: Brain functional and structural correlates of apathy in PD converge on distributed networks involving the VAN, FPN, and subcortical circuits. Our network localization approach offers a unifying neurobiological framework for apathy in PD, potentially reconciling previous inconsistencies and informing the development of network-targeted interventions.
Keywords: Apathy, frontoparietal network, functional connectivity network mapping, Network localization, Parkinson's disease, subcortical network, ventral attention network
Received: 14 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yang, Gu, Sun, Song, Zhang, Dai and Pan. 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: PingLei Pan
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