Exploration of the Mechanism Underlying the Association of Incident Microinfarct and Motor Deficit: A Preliminary Functional MRI Study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Luo, Xiao^{a; 1} | Hong, Hui^{a; 1} | Wang, Shuyue^{a; 1} | Li, Kaicheng^a | Zeng, Qingze^a | Hong, Luwei^a | Liu, Xiaocao^a | Li, Zheyu^b | Fu, Yanv^b | Jiaerken, Yeerfan^a | Xu, XiaoPei^a | Yu, Xinfeng^a | Huang, Peiyu^{a; 2} | Zhang, Minming^{a; 2; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Radiology, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China | [b] Department of Neurology, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Minming Zhang, MD, PhD, and Peiyu Huang, PhD, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, No.88 Jie-Fang Road, Shang-Cheng District, Hangzhou 310009, China. Tel.: +86 13906520711; E-mail: [email protected].

Note: [1] These authors contributed equally to this work.

Note: [2] These authors should be considered joint senior authors.

Abstract: Background:Cerebral microinfarcts (CMIs) might cause measurable disruption to brain connections and are associated with cognitive decline, but the association between CMIs and motor impairment is still unclear. Objective:To assess the CMIs effect on motor function in vivo and explore the potential neuropathological mechanism based on graph-based network method. Methods:We identified 133 non-demented middle-aged and elderly participants who underwent MRI scanning, cognitive, and motor assessment. The short physical performance battery (SPPB) assessed motor function, including balance, walking speed, and chair stand. We grouped participants into 34 incident CMIs carriers and 99 non-CMIs carriers as controls, depending on diffusion-weighted imaging. Then we assessed the independent CMIs effects on motor function and explored neural mechanisms of CMIs on motor impairment via mapping of degree centrality (DC) and eigenvector centrality (EC). Results:CMIs carriers had worse motor function than non-carriers. Linear regression analyses showed that CMIs independently contributed to motor function. CMIs carriers had decreased EC in the precuneus, while increased DC and EC in the middle temporal gyrus and increased DC in the inferior frontal gyrus compared to controls (p < 0.05, corrected). Correlation analyses showed that EC of precuneus was related to SPPB (r = 0.25) and balance (r = 0.27); however, DC (r = –0.25) and EC (r = –0.25) of middle temporal gyrus was related with SPPB in all participants (p < 0.05, corrected). Conclusion:CMIs represent an independent risk factor for motor dysfunction. The relationship between CMIs and motor function may be attributed to suppression of functional hub region and compensatory activation of motor-related regions.

Keywords: Cerebral microinfarcts, cerebral small vascular disease, degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, motor function, resting-state functional MRI

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-215227

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 85, no. 4, pp. 1545-1554, 2022