Brain Topographic Properties Of Anxiety Associated With Drug Naive Parkinson's Disease

ObjectiveAnxiety is one of the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease(PD),which affects daily life of patients.The neural basis of anxiety associated with PD remains unclear.Previous studies revealed that brain network abnormalities may underlie the neural substrate of PD anxiety.Therefore,the present study aimed to investigate the alteration of brain network associated with anxiety in PD(aPD),and to propose neural substrate of PD anxiety.MethodTwenty six drug na?ve PD patients and 20 age-and gender-matched normal controls(NCs)were recruited.According to the DSM-V criteria,patients with hamilton anxiety scale no less than 7 were classified into PD with anxiety(aPD),which resulted in 12 aPD,14 PD without anxiety(naPD).All subjects underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI).Topographic profiles,i.e.,nodal degree,clustering coefficient,local efficiency and global efficiency were calculated.Demographic profiles and topographic profiles were compared among groups using ANOVA and post test analysis.ResultCompared with naPD,aPD showed significantly lower clustering coefficient,node degree,local efficiency,global efficiency in the medial frontal / anterior cingulate,and higher nodal degree and global efficiency in the medial temporal lobe(hippocampus and amygdala).In addition,both aPD and naPD showed lower network properties in sensorimotor and visual network,as well as higher topographic properties in the default network,midbrain area(excluding the substantia nigra)when compared with NCs.ConclusionThe alteration of the topological properties of the anterior cingulate gyrus/medial frontal lobe,medial temporal lobe(hippocampus and amygdala)may underlie neural substrate of anxiety associated with PD.