Altered static and dynamic indices of intrinsic brain activity in patients with subcortical ischemic vascular disease: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis

Purpose To explore the static and dynamic characteristics of intrinsic brain activity (IBA) in subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) patients with or without cognitive impairment. Methods In total, 90 participants were recruited, including 32 SIVD patients with cognitive impairment (SIVD-CI, N = 32), 26 SIVD patients with no cognitive impairment (SIVD-NCI, N = 26), and 32 healthy controls (HC, N = 32) matched for age, gender, and education. All subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning and neuropsychological tests. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was calculated to reflect static alterations of regional IBA. Sliding window analysis was conducted in order to explore the dynamic characteristics. Results Both SIVD-CI and SIVD-NCI group showed significantly decreased ALFF in left angular gyrus (ANG), whereas SIVD-CI group showed increased ALFF in right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), compared with HCs. Furthermore, SIVD-CI group showed significantly decreased ALFF dynamics (dALFF) in right precuneus (PreCu) and left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), compared with HC and SIVD-NCI groups (Gaussian random field–corrected, voxel-level P < 0.001, cluster-level P < 0.05). No dynamic changes were detected between SIVD-NCI group and HC group. The mean ALFF value in left ANG of SIVD-CI group was correlated with the score of delayed memory scale. Conclusion ANG may be a vulnerable brain region in SIVD patients. Temporal dynamic analysis could serve as a sensitive and promising method to investigate IBA alterations in SIVD patients.