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. 2021 Feb 22:2021:8851027.
doi: 10.1155/2021/8851027. eCollection 2021.

Abnormal Gray Matter Volume and Functional Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder

Xu Jiang  1 , Zhuang Wu  1 , Min Zhong  1 , Bo Shen  1 , Jun Zhu  1 , Yang Pan  1 , Jun Yan  1 , Wenbin Zhang  2 , Pingyi Xu  3 , Chaoyong Xiao  4 , Li Zhang  1
Affiliations

Abnormal Gray Matter Volume and Functional Connectivity in Parkinson's Disease with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder

Xu Jiang et al. Parkinsons Dis. .

Abstract

Objective: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a common symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD), and patients with PD-RBD tend to have an increased risk of cognitive decline and have the tendency to be akinetic/rigidity predominant. At the same time, the mechanisms of RBD in patients with PD remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to detect the structural and functional differences in patients with PD-RBD and PD without RBD (PD-nRBD).

Methods: Twenty-four polysomnography-confirmed patients with PD-RBD, 26 patients with PD-nRBD, and 26 healthy controls were enrolled. Structural and functional patterns were analyzed based on voxel-based morphometry and seed-based functional connectivity (FC). Correlations between altered gray matter volume (GMV)/FC values and cognitive scores and motor impairment scores in PD subgroups were assessed.

Results: Compared with patients with PD-nRBD, patients with PD-RBD showed relatively high GMV in the cerebellar vermis IV/V and low GMV in the right superior occipital gyrus (SOG). For the FC, patients with PD-RBD displayed lower FC between the right SOG and the posterior regions (left fusiform gyrus, left calcarine sulcus, and left superior parietal gyrus) compared with the patients with PD-nRBD. The GMV values in the right SOG were negatively correlated with the Unified PD Rating Scale-III scores in patients with PD-RBD but positively correlated with delayed memory scores. The GMV values in the cerebellar vermis IV/V were positively correlated with the tonic chin EMG density scores. There were positive correlations between the FC values in the right SOG-left superior parietal gyrus and MoCA and visuospatial skills/executive function scores and in the right SOG-left calcarine sulcus and delayed memory scores.

Conclusion: Higher GMV in the cerebellum may be linked with the abnormal motor behaviors during REM sleep in patients with PD-RBD, and lower GMV and FC in the posterior regions may indicate that PD-RBD correspond to more serious neurodegeneration, especially the visuospatial-executive function impairment and delayed memory impairment. These findings provided new insights to learn more about the complicated characteristics in patients with PD-RBD.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The comparison of framewise displacement between the groups. “NS” means no significance.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The significant differences of gray matter volume (GMV) and functional connectivity (FC) among patients with PD-RBD, PD-nRBD, and HCs. The results were displayed in MNI space, and red color represents the different brain regions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The significant differences of gray matter volume (GMV) between the groups. The results were indicated with (∗), ∗P < 0.017.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The significant differences of functional connectivity (FC) among patients with PD-RBD, PD-nRBD, and HCs. The results were displayed in MNI space, and red color represents the different brain regions.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The significant differences of functional connectivity (FC) between right superior occipital gyrus (SOG) and other brain regions between the groups. The results were indicated with (∗), ∗P < 0.017.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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