Katherine A. Koenig1, Stephen M. Rao2, Mark J. Lowe1, Jian Lin1, Deborah L. Harrington3, Dawei Liu4, Ken Sakaie1, Jane S. Paulsen5
1Imaging Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, United States; 2Schey Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, United States; 3Research, Neurology, and Radiology Services, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States; 4Department of Biostatistics, The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, United States; 5Department of Psychiatry, The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, United States
Functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI), measured from low-frequency fluctuations in the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) timeseries during rest, has the potential to identify disruptions in intrinsic brain connectivity in the prodromal stages of Huntingtons disease (HD). The current study evaluated differences in 8 gene-negative subjects, 8 gene-positive subjects who were close to diagnosis of manifest HD, and 8 gene-positive subjects who were far from diagnosis of manifest HD. Significant group differences in the strength of connectivity from the left insula and the right supplementary motor cortex represent the first report of resting-state fcMRI differences in prodromal HD individuals.