Frontoparietal network resilience is associated with protection against cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Though Parkinson’s disease is primarily defined as a movement disorder, it is also characterized by a range of non-motor symptoms, including cognitive decline. The onset and progression of cognitive decline in individuals with Parkinson’s disease is variable, and the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to, or protect against, cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease are poorly understood. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected from individuals with Parkinson’s disease with and without cognitive decline, we examined the relationship between topological brain-network resilience and cognition in Parkinson’s disease. By leveraging network attack analyses, we demonstrate that relative to individuals with Parkinson’s disease experiencing cognitive decline, the frontoparietal network in cognitively stable individuals with Parkinson’s disease is significantly more resilient to network perturbation. Our findings suggest that the topological robustness of the frontoparietal network is associated with the absence of cognitive decline in individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

Abstract

Arianna Cascone et al. examine the relationship between frontoparietal brain network resilience and cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Their results suggest that individuals with PD and cognitive decline exhibit reduced tolerance to network "attacks" or perturbation in the frontoparietal network, compared to both individuals with PD with normal cognition and healthy, non-PD controls.