To assess if the severity of nigrostriatal innervation loss affects the functional connectivity (FC) of the sensorimotor cortico-striato-thalamic-cortical loop (CSTCL) in Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Resting-State functional MRI and ¹⁸F-DOPA PET data, simultaneously acquired on a hybrid PET/MRI scanner, were retrospectively analyzed in 39 PD and 16 essential tremor patients. Correlations between posterior Putamen DOPA Uptake (pPDU) and the FC of the main CSTCL hubs were assessed separately in the two groups, analyzing the differences between the two groups by a group-by-pPDU interaction analysis of the resulting clusters’ FC. Unlike in essential tremor, in PD patients pPDU correlated inversely with the FC of the thalamus with the sensorimotor cortices, and of the postcentral gyrus with the dorsal cerebellum, and directly with the FC of pre- and post-central gyri with both the superior and middle temporal gyri and the paracentral lobule, and of the caudate with the superior parietal cortex. The interaction analysis confirmed the significance of the difference between the two groups in these correlations. In PD patients, the post-central cortex FC, in the clusters correlating directly with pPDU, negatively correlated with both UPDRS motor examination score and Hoehn and Yahr stage, independent of the pPDU, suggesting that these FC changes contribute to motor impairment. In PD, nigrostriatal innervation loss correlates with a decrease in the FC within the sensorimotor network and between the sensorimotor network and the superior temporal cortices, possibly contributing to motor impairment, and with a strengthening of the thalamo-cortical FC, that may represent ineffective compensatory phenomena.

^{评估黑质纹状体神经支配丧失的严重程度是否影响帕金森病 (PD)、静息状态功能 MRI 和18}中感觉运动皮质-纹状体-丘脑-皮质环 (CSTCL) 的功能连接 (FC)在混合 PET/MRI 扫描仪上同时采集的 F-DOPA PET 数据在 39 名 PD 和 16 名特发性震颤患者中进行了回顾性分析。在两组中分别评估后壳多巴摄取 (pPDU) 和主要 CSTCL 枢纽的 FC 之间的相关性，通过对所得集群的 FC 的逐个 pPDU 交互分析分析两组之间的差异。与特发性震颤不同，在 PD 患者中，pPDU 与丘脑与感觉运动皮层的 FC、中央后回与小脑背侧的 FC 呈负相关，并且与中央前回和后中央回的 FC 与上、颞中回和中央旁小叶，尾状核与顶叶上皮层。交互作用分析证实了两组在这些相关性中差异的显着性。在 PD 患者中，与 pPDU 直接相关的集群中的中央后皮层 FC 与 UPDRS 运动检查评分和 Hoehn 和 Yahr 分期均呈负相关，与 pPDU 无关，这表明这些 FC 变化会导致运动障碍。在 PD 中，黑质纹状体神经支配丧失与感觉运动网络内以及感觉运动网络与颞上皮层之间的 FC 减少相关，可能导致运动障碍，并且与丘脑-皮质 FC 的加强相关，这可能代表无效的代偿现象。与 UPDRS 运动检查评分和 Hoehn 和 Yahr 分期呈负相关，与 pPDU 无关，表明这些 FC 变化导致运动障碍。在 PD 中，黑质纹状体神经支配丧失与感觉运动网络内以及感觉运动网络与颞上皮层之间的 FC 减少相关，可能导致运动障碍，并且与丘脑-皮质 FC 的加强相关，这可能代表无效的代偿现象。与 UPDRS 运动检查评分和 Hoehn 和 Yahr 分期呈负相关，与 pPDU 无关，表明这些 FC 变化导致运动障碍。在 PD 中，黑质纹状体神经支配丧失与感觉运动网络内以及感觉运动网络与颞上皮层之间的 FC 减少相关，可能导致运动障碍，并且与丘脑-皮质 FC 的加强相关，这可能代表无效的代偿现象。