Background:Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered to be a transitional stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) because it has the same clinical symptoms as AD but with lower severity. Studies have confirmed that patients with aMCI are more likely to develop to AD. Although studies on resting state functional connectivity have revealed the abnormal organization of brain networks, the dynamic changes of the functional connectivity across the scans have been ignored. Objective:Dynamic functional connectivity is a novel method to reveal the temporal variation of brain networks. This paper aimed to investigate the dynamic characteristics of brain functional connectivity in the early and late phases of aMCI. Methods:Based on the “triple network” model, we used the sliding time window approach to construct dynamical functional networks and then analyzed the dynamic characteristics of the functional connectivity across the entire scan. Results:The results showed that patients with aMCI had longer dwell times in weaker network connection than in the strong network. The transitions between different states become more frequent, and the stability of the patient’s brain core network deteriorates. This study also found the correlation between the altered dynamic properties of the core functional networks and the patient’s clinical Mini-Mental State Examination assessment scale sores. Conclusion:This study revealed that the characteristics of dynamic functional networks constructed by the core cognitive networks varied in distinct ways at different stages of aMCI, which could provide a new idea for exploring the neuro-mechanisms of neurological disorders.

中文翻译：

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基于三重网络模型的遗忘型轻度认知障碍不同阶段异常核心脑功能网络动力学分析

背景：遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）被认为是阿尔茨海默病（AD）的过渡阶段，因为它具有与AD相同的临床症状但严重程度较低。研究证实，aMCI 患者更容易发展为 AD。尽管对静息状态功能连接的研究揭示了大脑网络的异常组织，但功能连接在扫描过程中的动态变化却被忽略了。目的：动态功能连接是一种揭示大脑网络时间变化的新方法。本文旨在探讨 aMCI 早期和晚期脑功能连接的动态特征。方法：基于“三重网络”模型，我们使用滑动时间窗方法构建动态功能网络，然后分析整个扫描过程中功能连接的动态特性。结果：结果表明，aMCI 患者在弱网络连接中的停留时间比在强网络中的停留时间长。不同状态之间的转换变得更加频繁，患者大脑核心网络的稳定性变差。这项研究还发现了核心功能网络的动态特性改变与患者临床简易精神状态检查评估量表疼痛之间的相关性。结论：本研究表明，由核心认知网络构建的动态功能网络的特征在 aMCI 的不同阶段以不同的方式变化，