The Study Of Resting-state Functional Connectivity Strength In Conventional MRI Negative Children With Language Disorders

Objective: To study the abnormal brain regions in preschool children’s language disorders by using the functional connection strength(FCS)of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging(f MRI),analyze the correlation between abnormal brain regions and IQ to provide a reference for the pathophysiology of children with language disorders.Methods: Twenty-two children with language impairment from preschool(4-6 years old)who were diagnosed in the pediatric of the Zunyi Medical University Affiliated Hospital from July 2017 to December 2019 were collected as case group,including 16 males and 6 females,screened by senior pediatricians based on clinical manifestations and combined with the Chinese Children’s SS Language Delayed Development Scale developed by the China Rehabilitation Research Center.Conventional MRI examination of the child’s brain revealed no abnormalities.And eighteen healthy volunteers(14 males and 4 females)were collected as control group.The case group was tested for intelligence by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.GE Signal HDxt 3.0T superconducting magnetic resonance scanner was used for craniocerebral MRI examination.The scanning sequences included conventional magnetic resonance sequences(T1-FLAIR、T2-FLAIR)and BOLD sequences.All subjects’ f MRI data were pre-processed based on MATLAB 2014 a platform using DPARSF and SPM8 software,and then the whole brain FCS was calculated by See CAT software.Then calculated the total brain functional connection intensity value(FCS),which was the sum of each gray matter voxel connection with all other voxels in the brain.The age of the case group and the control group was tested by two independent sample t tests,and the gender was tested by continuity correction Chi-squared test.The differences in FCS values between the two groups were analyzed using two independent sample t tests,with age and gender as covariates,and multiple comparisons corrected using the false discovery rate(FDR).In the case group,Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the FCS values of the brain regions with differences between the groups and IQ.Results: There was no significant difference in gender and age between the case group and the control group(after FDR correction,P>0.05).In case group,FCS decreased in the bilateral putamen,bilateral caudate nucleus,bilateral islet leaf,left occipital lobe and lingual gyrus.And FCS increased in the bilateral medial temporal gyrus and left frontal gyrus(after FDR correction,P<0.05).Through Spearman correlation analysis,it was found that the left frontal gyrus was positively correlated with FIQ,VIQ,and PIQ.Correlation coefficient were 0.562,0.512 and 0.543.Conclusion:(1)Preschool children with language impairment who are routinely MRI negative have multiple enhancement and reduction of brain regions in MRI wholebrain FCS,which suggests there are abnormal network connections in multiple brain regions in language development.(2)The enhancement of the functional strength of the left upper frontal gyrus,which suggests there may be some compensatory reserve for cognitive and language functions.