Altered anatomical network in early blindness revealed by diffusion tensor tractography.
Altered anatomical network in early blindness revealed by diffusion tensor tractography.
复制标题
弥散张量纤维束成像揭示早期失明中解剖网络的改变。
DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0007228
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发表时间：
2009-09-28
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Jiang T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Shu N;Liu Y;Li J;Li Y;Yu C;Jiang T
大脑解剖网络的拓扑结构反映了人类大脑的结构组织。近年来，基于图论的拓扑测度为大规模解剖网络的量化提供了新的途径。扩散MRI研究揭示了正常受试者解剖网络的高效小世界特性和模块化结构。然而，之前没有研究使用弥散MRI来揭示早期失明时大脑解剖网络的变化。在此，我们利用弥散张量成像技术构建了17例早期失明受试者和17例年龄和性别匹配的视力对照组的二元解剖网络。我们建立了结构连接的存在之间的任何一对90皮质和皮质下区域使用确定性束状图。与对照组相比，早期失明受试者表现出连接程度下降、整体效率降低、大脑解剖网络特征路径长度增加，尤其是在视觉皮层。此外，我们发现在早期失明中，一些具有运动或体感功能的区域与其他大脑区域的联系增加，这表明经验依赖的代偿可塑性。这项研究首次显示了早期失明中解剖网络拓扑特性的改变。从结果来看，我们认为利用弥散MRI数据分析大脑的解剖网络为理解早期视觉剥夺特定人群的大脑重组提供了新的见解。
The topological architecture of the cerebral anatomical network reflects the structural organization of the human brain. Recently, topological measures based on graph theory have provided new approaches for quantifying large-scale anatomical networks. Diffusion MRI studies have revealed the efficient small-world properties and modular structure of the anatomical network in normal subjects. However, no previous study has used diffusion MRI to reveal changes in the brain anatomical network in early blindness. Here, we utilized diffusion tensor imaging to construct binary anatomical networks for 17 early blind subjects and 17 age- and gender-matched sighted controls. We established the existence of structural connections between any pair of the 90 cortical and sub-cortical regions using deterministic tractography. Compared with controls, early blind subjects showed a decreased degree of connectivity, a reduced global efficiency, and an increased characteristic path length in their brain anatomical network, especially in the visual cortex. Moreover, we revealed some regions with motor or somatosensory function have increased connections with other brain regions in the early blind, which suggested experience-dependent compensatory plasticity. This study is the first to show alterations in the topological properties of the anatomical network in early blindness. From the results, we suggest that analyzing the brain's anatomical network obtained using diffusion MRI data provides new insights into the understanding of the brain's re-organization in the specific population with early visual deprivation.