Dynamic alterations of spontaneous neural activity in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a multi-system disease featured by movement disorder. Studies on ALS using static neuroimaging indexes demonstrated inconsistent results. However, recent work indicated that the intrinsic brain activity was time-varying, and the abnormal temporal dynamics of brain activity in ALS remains unknown. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were first obtained from 54 patients with ALS and 54 healthy controls (HCs). Then the dynamic regional homogeneity (d-ReHo) was calculated and compared between the two groups. Correlation analyses between altered d-ReHo and clinical scores were further performed. Compared with HCs, ALS patients showed higher d-ReHo in the left lingual gyrus while lower d-ReHo in the left rectus gyrus and left parahippocampal gyrus. Moreover, the d-ReHo in the left lingual gyrus exhibited correlation with disease progression rate in ALS at a trend level. Our findings suggested that altered dynamics in intrinsic brain activity might be a potential biomarker for diagnosing of ALS.

Automated summary

ALS is a multi-system disease characterized by movement disorder. Studies on ALS using static neuroimaging indexes have shown inconsistent results, but recent research suggests that intrinsic brain activity is time-varying. In this study, ALS patients exhibited altered dynamics in intrinsic brain activity compared to healthy controls, indicating the potential use of such changes as a biomarker for diagnosing ALS.