Aberrant functional brain network dynamics in patients with functional constipation

Figures

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  FIGURE 1. The framework of dFC analysis. AUC, area under the curve; dFC, dynamic functional connectivity; E glob, global efficiency; E loc, local efficiency; E nodal, nodal efficiency; GICA, group independent component analysis; ICNs, intrinsic connectivity networks; ICs, independent components; K nodal, nodal degree; ROI, region‐of‐interest; SampEn, sample entropy

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  FIGURE 2. ICNs identified at spatial GICA. (a) The spatial maps of these seven ICNs. (b) The subject‐averaged static functional connectivity matrix. AUD, auditory network; CB, cerebellum network.; CC, cognitive control network; DM, default mode network; GICA, group independent component analysis; SC, subcortical network; SM, sensorimotor network; VS, visual network

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  FIGURE 3. Results of the state clustering analysis. (a) The cluster centroid of each state and its corresponding occurrence rate. (b) The connectogram of edges with connection strength greater than 0.25 in each state. The warm‐toned lines indicate positive connectivity, and the cold‐toned lines indicate negative connectivity. (c,d) The cluster centroids and occurrence of FCon patients and HS in each state, respectively. The occurrence of each state was calculated by summing the numbers of subjects with at least one window belonging to that state. (e) The result of between‐group comparisons of the centroids in FCon patients and HS in these states. The red grids and blue grids indicate the edges that the functional connectivity in FCon patients is stronger or weaker than HS, respectively. AUD, auditory network; CB, cerebellum network; CC, cognitive control network; DM, default mode network; FCon, functional constipation; HS, healthy subjects; SC, subcortical network; SM, sensorimotor network; VS, visual network

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  FIGURE 4. The temporal properties of the dFC states in FCon patients and HS. (a,b) The between‐group comparisons of occurrence rate and mean dwell time in each state. The asterisk represents the significant difference under the threshold of p FDR < .05. (c) The between‐group comparison of the number of transitions. The black dot indicates each subject, and the red dot indicates the mean of transitions number. (d–f) Scatterplots of the correlation between the clinical symptoms and temporal properties in State 2. FCon, functional constipation; HS, healthy subjects; weekly SBMs, weekly spontaneous bowel movements; SEM, standard error of mean

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  FIGURE 5. Aberrant aINS–cortical coupling patterns in State 2 and their associations with constipation symptoms. There were eight aINS related connections, including aINS‐ACC and aINS‐cerebellum crus II manifested a significant difference between FCon patients and HS (shown with the black rectangular boxes in the matrix). The asterisk represents the significant difference under the threshold of p FDR < 0.05. The aberrant coupling patterns of aINS‐ACC and aINS‐cerebellum crus II were positively correlated with PAC‐SYM scores in FCon patients. ACC, anterior cingulate cortex; aINS, anterior insula; AUD, auditory network; CB, cerebellum network; CC, cognitive control network; DM, default mode network; FCon, functional constipation; HS, healthy subjects; PAC‐SYM, Patient Assessment of Constipation Symptom Questionnaire; SC, subcortical network; SM, sensorimotor network; VS, visual network

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  FIGURE 6. Between‐group comparisons of SampEn of the global and nodal topological metrics. A black dot indicates a subject, and the red dot indicates the mean of SampEn. The asterisk represents the significant difference under the threshold of p FDR < .05. E glob, global efficiency; E loc, local efficiency; E nodal, nodal efficiency; FCon, functional constipation; HS, healthy subjects; K nodal, nodal degree; SampEn, sample entropy