BRAIN: The network controllability and regional gene expression differences behind Parkinson's disease hallucinations

Visual hallucinations are common in Parkinson's disease and have poor prognosis.
imaging studies have shown that whiteness loss and functional connectivity change with the visual hallucinations of Parkinson's disease, but the biological factors behind selective vulnerability in the affected parts of the brain network are unclear.
latest models of Parkinson's disease hallucinations suggest that they are caused by changes in the relative effects of different networks.
understanding how structural connectivity affects the interactions between networks will provide important mechanical insights.
to solve this problem, this study looked at changes in structural connectivity associated with Parkinson's disease accompanied by visual hallucinations, as well as tissue and gene expression characteristics in the affected areas of the network.
researchers conducted diffusion-weighted imaging of 100 people with Parkinson's disease (81 without hallucinations, 19 with visual hallucinations) and 34 health controls with matching ages.
used web-based statistics to identify structural connectivity in patients with hallucinogenic Parkinson's disease and conducted controlled analysis, an emerging technique that quantifies the effects of brain regions on the rest of the network.
use these techniques, we identified subnets of reduced connectivity in Parkinson's disease hallucinations.
then, the Human Transcription Group chart from the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences was used to determine regional gene expression patterns associated with the affected areas of the network.
in this network, people with parkinson's disease with hallucinations showed less controllability (with less impact on other brain regions) than those with Parkinson's disease who did not have hallucinations and controls.
the subnet appears to be critical to the integration of the entire brain, because even in controls, nodes with high control are more likely to be in the subnet.
Gene expression analysis of gene modules associated with affected subnets showed that genes with lower weight were the most significantly enriched (in less protrusive glial cells) and the most abundant in protein location (in neuron cells).
study provides insights into hallucinations and breaks down a key structural sub-network that exerts control over distributed brain regions.
may involve gene expression associated with mRNA metabolism and membrane positioning, providing potential therapeutic targets.
origins: Angeliki Zarkali, Peter McColgan, Mina Ryten, Differences in network controlability and regional gene expression underlie hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. MedSci Original Source: MedSci Original Copyright Notice: All text, images and audio and video materials on this website that indicate "Source: Mets Medicine" or "Source: MedSci Original" are owned by Mets Medicine and are not authorized to be reproduced by any media, website or individual, and are authorized to be reproduced with the words "Source: Mets Medicine".
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