The Characteristics of Entorhinal Cortex Functional Connectivity in Alzheimer's Disease Patients with Depression

Background Depression is one of the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) which decreases the life quality of both patients and caregivers. There are currently no effective drugs. It is therefore important to explore the pathogenesis of depression in AD patients. Objective The present study aimed to investigate the characteristics of the entorhinal cortex (EC) functional connectivity (FC) in the whole brain neural network of AD patients with depression (D-AD). Methods Twenty-four D-AD patients, 14 AD patients without depression (nD-AD), and 20 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We set the EC as the seed and used FC analysis. One-way analysis of variance was used to examine FC differences among the three groups. Results Using the left EC as the seed point, there were FC differences among the three groups in the left EC-inferior occipital gyrus. Using the right EC as the seed point, there were FC differences among the three groups in the right EC-middle frontal gyrus, -superior parietal gyrus, -superior medial frontal gyrus, and -precentral gyrus. Compared with the nD-AD group, the D-AD group had increased FC between the right EC and right postcentral gyrus. Conclusion Asymmetry of FC in the EC and increased FC between the EC and right postcentral gyrus may be important in the pathogenesis of depression in AD.