Can the Executive Control Network be Used to Diagnose Parkinson’s Disease and as an Efficacy Indicator of Deep Brain Stimulation?

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this work was to investigate whether there are differences in the executive control network (ECN) between patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) before and after deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery and to explore how deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery affects ECN connectivity in patients with PD. Methods. Resting-state magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were obtained from 23 patients with Parkinson’s disease preoperatively (pre-PD) and postoperatively (post-PD) and 14 normal controls (CN). The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was used as the seed region of interest (ROI) to study the characteristics of the functional connectivity of the ECN in these subjects. Results. There were differences in the ECN among PD patients before and after surgery and between the CN. Compared with the CN group, the pre-PD patients showed significantly reduced functional connectivity (FC) between the DLPFC and the left inferior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, left cerebellum posterior lobe, right middle frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal gyrus, right posterior central gyrus, right precuneus, and right inferior frontal gyrus. Compared to the CN group, the post-PD patients showed significantly reduced FC between the DLPFC and left inferior frontal gyrus, left precuneus, left cerebellum posterior lobe, right middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right parietal lobule. There is no difference in the ECN between the pre-PD patients and the post-PD patients. Conclusions. The FC of ECN in PD patients was different from that in normal controls, but the FC of the ECN in patients with PD may not be altered by DBS. This suggests that the ECN may be considered an imaging biomarker for the identification of PD but may not be a good imaging biomarker for the evaluation of DBS efficacy.