Functional alterations in large-scale resting-state networks of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A multi-site study across Canada and the United States

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269154
• Publication Date: 2022-06-16T17:29:18Z
• Authors: Komal Bharti; Simon J. Graham; Michael Benatar; Hannah Briemberg; Sneha Chenji; Nicolas Dupré; Annie Dionne; Richard Frayne; Angela Genge; Lawrence Korngut; Collin Luk; Lorne Zinman; Sanjay Kalra
• Keywords: Brain Mapping; Canada; Science; Q; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; R; Brain; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; United States; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Medicine; Humans; Research Article

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a multisystem neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of upper motor neurons and lower neurons, frontotemporal regions resulting in impaired bulbar, limb, cognitive function. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have reported cortical subcortical brain involvement the pathophysiology ALS. The present study investigates functional integrity resting-state networks (RSNs) their importance Intra- inter-network connectivity (Rs-FC) was examined using an independent component analysis approach large multi-center cohort. A total 235 subjects (120 ALS patients; 115 healthy controls (HC) were recruited across North America through Canadian Neuroimaging Consortium (CALSNIC). Intra-network Rs-FC evaluated FSL-MELODIC FSLNets software packages. As compared to HC, patients displayed higher intra-network sensorimotor, default mode, right left fronto-parietal, orbitofrontal RSNs, previously undescribed including auditory, dorsal attention, basal ganglia, medial temporal, ventral streams, cerebellum which negatively correlated with disease severity. Furthermore, between ganglia RSNs impairment. In summary, there increase intra- underpinning both Moreover, CALSNIC dataset permitted exploration unprecedented detail, revealing network