Fronto-caudate and callosal microstructural alterations: unveiling multimodal MRI biomarkers in early Parkinson&apos
[EN] Objectives This study investigated grey and white matter alterations and their association with motor and cognitive symptoms in early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods Thirty-one early-stage PD patients and 30 matched healthy controls underwent multimodal MRI (VBM, DTI) and compre...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) |
| Repositorio: | RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:riunet______::ec656f38d2ebd03b6cd9119fe51e25c3 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/234838 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Parkinson&apos s disease Brain Diffusion tensor imaging Caudate connectivity |
| Sumario: | [EN] Objectives This study investigated grey and white matter alterations and their association with motor and cognitive symptoms in early-stage Parkinson's disease (PD).Methods Thirty-one early-stage PD patients and 30 matched healthy controls underwent multimodal MRI (VBM, DTI) and comprehensive clinical/neuropsychological assessments. We assessed grey matter atrophy, white matter microstructure, and caudate-cortical connectivity.Results Parkinson's disease (PD) patients showed selective deficits in memory (FCSRT total recall, P-FDR = .014) and processing speed (SDMT, P-FDR = .025). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) revealed bilateral caudate atrophy (left, P-FDR = .024; right, P-FDR = .026). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) demonstrated widespread microstructural alterations in corpus callosum and major association tracts. Disease duration negatively correlated with corpus callosum streamline counts (superior parietal P-FDR = .02; posterior parietal P-FDR = .004). UPDRS negatively correlated with fractional anisotropy (FA) in occipital (P-FDR = .002) and temporal (P-FDR = .0017) corpus callosum segments. Reduced caudate-cortical streamline density in frontal regions correlated with UPDRS/FCSRT scores; caudate-cingulum streamlines correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) attention/calculation.Conclusions Our findings suggest early functionally relevant degeneration of fronto-caudate and interhemispheric pathways in PD. These structural changes correlate with specific cognitive and motor impairments, and are candidate imaging biomarkers for early PD progression and/or cognitive vulnerability.Advances in Knowledge This is the first tractography study to evaluate connectivity between the caudate nuclei and different frontal lobe regions, unveiling specific white matter alterations in early PD. Our findings suggest that caudate atrophy, though not directly correlated with clinical variables, may underlie or result from impaired caudate-cortical connectivity, potentially accounting for some of the multifaceted PD symptoms. |
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