Most recent paper

Front Psychiatry. 2026 Sep 30;17:1972200. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1972200. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Auricular vagus neuromodulation, encompassing transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) and transcutaneous electrical cranial-auricular acupoint stimulation (TECAS), is an emerging noninvasive intervention for major depressive disorder (MDD). Neuroimaging studies of its central effects have expanded rapidly, yet findings remain dispersed across heterogeneous designs and have not been integrated at the cohort level.

METHODS: We followed PRISMA 2020 guidelines and searched five databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science Core Collection, and PsycINFO) from inception to June 30, 2026; only English-language reports were included. Two reviewers independently screened records, extracted effect-level data, and appraised methodological quality using the 2024 JBI tool for quasi-experimental studies. Reports from the same cohort were identified via trial registrations, and denominators were counted once per cohort. Findings were stratified by five imaging paradigms and synthesized via cohort-level vote-counting, with null effects reported alongside positive findings.

RESULTS: Seventeen neuroimaging reports arose from nine independent cohorts (321 enrolled patients with MDD, 293 in imaging analyses, 144 healthy controls). The most reproducible finding was bidirectional normalization in striatal-cortical reward-circuit regions across four cohorts, qualified by null nucleus accumbens and putamen seed findings in one cohort. Default-mode-network regions were implicated in seven of nine cohorts, with heterogeneous directions. The only anterior insula effect surviving between-group correction was confined to an acute stimulation-state paradigm, and stimulation-state connectivity changes were frequency-band-specific. Twenty-seven of the coded effects were explicitly null. The sole machine-learning model (AUC = 0.856) was evaluated only by internal cross-validation. Quality appraisal rated two reports high, fourteen moderate, and one low.

CONCLUSION: The evidence remains strictly hypothesis-generating: auricular vagus neuromodulation is accompanied by distributed treatment-associated brain changes, but establishes neither causal pathways nor clinically actionable imaging markers. Confirmatory multi-center, sham-controlled trials with preregistered imaging endpoints, harmonized stimulation parameters, explicit null-result reporting, and independent external validation are needed.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD420261421762, identifier CRD420261421762.

PMID:42877696 | PMC:PMC13664290 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1972200

Proc Mach Learn Res. 2026;340:55-76.

ABSTRACT

Headache is the most common neurological disorder in children and substantially affects quality of life. We investigated whether resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) can support pediatric headache classification using machine learning. We encoded rs-fMRI data using NeuroSTORM, a recent foundation model, and fine-tuned it to distinguish healthy controls from children with headache and subsequently classify headache subtypes. We then compared NeuroSTORM with a standard neuroscience approach that uses functional connectivity (FC) matrices derived from brain activity as predictors. Using 189 rs-fMRI scans from 110 individuals collected across two visits (prevalence of any headache: 74%), NeuroSTORM achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.82 (95% CI, 0.82-0.82) and an area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.93-0.94) in discriminating headache from non-headache. In contrast, models trained on FC matrices showed limited performance (AUROC, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.67-0.67]; AUPRC, 0.85 [95% CI, 0.85-0.85]). In a multiclass setting, when tasked with classifying individuals as healthy controls, individuals with chronic migraine, or individuals with non-chronic headaches (e.g., post-viral headache, new daily persistent headache, post-traumatic headache), NeuroSTORM achieved a macro-AUROC of 0.69 (95% CI, 0.68-0.69). The results suggest this approach can distinguish chronic migraine, the most common headache syndrome, but has difficulty differentiating other headache subtypes from chronic migraine. Overall, under limited-data conditions, NeuroSTORM appears to capture latent rs-fMRI representations that transfer to headache-related tasks. The findings provide proof-of-concept for fMRI-based prediction of pediatric headache using a foundation model without relying on functional connectivity features and highlight the potential of this approach for subtype identification. Further development of such tools may help clinicians improve diagnosis based on brain activity and tailor treatment strategies to individual patients.

PMID:42877426 | PMC:PMC13668307

J Alzheimers Dis Rep. 2026 Apr 24;10:25424823261445998. doi: 10.1177/25424823261445998. eCollection 2026 Jan-Dec.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The association between cognitive impairment and chronic unilateral vestibulopathy (CUVP) remains unclear. Vestibular dysfunction is linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), suggesting that cognitive deficits in CUVP may provide insight into early AD-related processes.

OBJECTIVE: To assess cognition in CUVP patients, and investigate its correlation with brain functional and structural changes.

METHODS: 37 patients with left CUVP (LCUVP), 30 patients with right CUVP (RCUVP), and 38 healthy control (HC) were recruited. Patients underwent vestibular evaluations, neuropsychological scales, functional MRI (fMRI), and structural MRI (sMRI). The fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), functional connectivity (FC) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) were analyzed.

RESULTS: Compared with HC, CUVP patients showed extensive cognitive impairment. The fALFF of right precuneus, the ReHo of right lingual gyrus and precuneus were decreased in CUVP patients, and the FC between right precuneus and bilateral angular gyrus, between right lingual gyrus and middle occipital gyrus were changed (voxel p < 0.001 and cluster p < 0.01, corrected by GRF). Exploratory correlation analyses suggested trends between brain function and cognitive/vestibular measures. Sensitivity analyses controlling for mood symptoms confirmed the robustness of most imaging findings. VBM revealed no significant gray matter differences between CUVP patients and HC.

CONCLUSIONS: In CUVP patients, abnormal functional activities mainly involved occipital and parietal lobes related to cognitive performance, while brain structure did not change, suggesting that functional brain alterations may be more sensitive than structural changes. These findings suggest potential neural correlates of vestibular-related cognitive decline that may be relevant to early stages of AD.

PMID:42877395 | PMC:PMC13662308 | DOI:10.1177/25424823261445998

Front Comput Neurosci. 2026 Sep 30;20:1835559. doi: 10.3389/fncom.2026.1835559. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) exhibit significant overlap in clinical symptoms, posing substantial challenges to accurate diagnosis. This study proposes an innovative multi-modal fusion framework based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), integrating structural and functional MRI biomarkers-gray matter volume (GMV) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF).

METHODS: Total 31 patients with schizophrenia, 48 patients with bipolar disorder, and 38 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled and underwent resting-state fMRI scans. The framework comprises three core components: Gaussian data augmentation to mitigate the limitation of small sample sizes; a dedicated CNN architecture for processing GMV and ALFF features to generate class probability outputs for SZ, BD, and HC; and DempsterShafer (D-S) evidence theory for robust multi-modal decision fusion.

RESULTS: Extensive 5-fold cross-validation confirms the framework's efficacy: it achieves superior performance metrics (Accuracy: 0.9656 ± 0.0324, Precision: 0.9698 ± 0.0319, Recall: 0.9656 ± 0.0324, F1-Score: 0.9661 ± 0.0324) and outperforms traditional machine learning methods (SVM, Random Forest, XGBoost, KNN).

CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that the proposed multi-modal fusion approach enhances the ability to differentiate among SZ, BD, and HC compared to unimodal classification methods, providing a reliable technical support for the auxiliary diagnosis of psychiatric disorders.

PMID:42876975 | PMC:PMC13661931 | DOI:10.3389/fncom.2026.1835559

Front Psychiatry. 2026 Sep 30;17:1946797. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1946797. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether pretreatment resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of hippocampal subregions is associated with 12-week escitalopram treatment outcomes in major depressive disorder (MDD).

METHODS: A total of 87 patients with MDD received 12 weeks of escitalopram monotherapy and underwent resting-state functional MRI before treatment. Based on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) score at week 12, patients were classified into the remission depression group (RD, n = 42) or the nonremission depression group (NRD, n = 45). Seed-based whole-brain rsFC analyses were performed using eight bilateral hippocampal subregions as seeds. Group differences in rsFC were examined, and exploratory logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted to assess the discrimination of remission. Partial correlations between differential rsFC and the HAMD-17 reduction rate were calculated controlling for age, sex, and education level.

RESULTS: Compared with NRD, RD showed higher pretreatment rsFC between the left hippocampal tail and the right inferior parietal lobule and lower rsFC between the right hippocampal body and the left middle occipital gyrus and between the right hippocampal tail and the right cuneus. An exploratory combined model integrating the three differential rsFC measures showed discrimination between the RD and NRD groups, with an area under the curve of 0.841 (95% confidence interval: 0.755-0.915). The HAMD-17 reduction rate was negatively associated with right hippocampal body-left middle occipital gyrus rsFC and right hippocampal tail-right cuneus rsFC, but positively associated with left hippocampal tail-right inferior parietal lobule rsFC.

CONCLUSION: Patterns of pretreatment rsFC involving the hippocampal body and tail and parietal and visual cortical regions were associated with 12-week escitalopram treatment outcomes in MDD. These connectivity measures may represent candidate imaging features for further investigation, although validation in larger independent samples is required.

PMID:42876953 | PMC:PMC13661943 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1946797

Front Neurosci. 2026 Sep 30;20:1961911. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2026.1961911. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is generally regarded as a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy involving distributed brain networks, although a focal structural abnormality may occasionally recruit bilateral cortical and thalamic circuits and produce an LGS phenotype. We characterized the spatiotemporal organization of such a network and its changes after focal SEEG-guided radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RF-TC).

METHODS: A 50-year-old woman with drug-resistant epilepsy, multiple seizure types, diffuse slow spike-and-wave discharges, generalized paroxysmal fast activity, intellectual impairment, and right frontal periventricular heterotopia (PVH) underwent stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG). Cortico-cortical evoked potentials (CCEPs) were acquired before and after SEEG-guided radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RF-TC). Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), obtained before and 3 months after RF-TC, was analyzed using three seeds: the entire right frontal PVH and the right and left centromedian thalamic nuclei (CM).

RESULTS: SEEG identified the earliest sustained ictal activity within the sampled right frontal PVH-related medial contacts, accompanied by high-frequency activity. This was followed by ipsilateral lateral frontal recruitment, contralateral frontal synchronization, and subsequent bilateral CM involvement. Two-stage RF-TC of the onset and early-recruited networks was followed by seizure freedom through 9 months. After RF-TC, right-sided stimulation produced markedly attenuated lesion-related CCEP responses, whereas left-sided responses and responses between thalamic contacts showed little appreciable change. Descriptive rs-fMRI difference maps demonstrated decreased local frontal connectivity around the treated territory and increased long-range connectivity for the PVH seed; both CM seeds showed predominantly increased connectivity with distributed cortical and cerebellar regions.

CONCLUSION: In this patient, a focal PVH-related epileptogenic network was associated with secondary bilateral cortical and thalamic recruitment underlying an LGS phenotype. CCEP and rs-fMRI captured complementary aspects of postoperative network change: attenuation of stimulation-evoked propagation and postoperative changes in intrinsic functional connectivity, respectively.

PMID:42876716 | PMC:PMC13661969 | DOI:10.3389/fnins.2026.1961911

Front Neurol. 2026 Sep 30;17:1921227. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2026.1921227. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to preliminarily compare clinical efficacy and neural mechanisms of continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) and low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting the auditory cortex in chronic subjective tinnitus. Differential effects on tinnitus loudness and distress, as well as the moderating role of disease duration, were explored.

METHODS: Twenty-nine patients were randomly assigned to cTBS (n = 16) or rTMS (n = 13) groups. Neuronavigation-guided stimulation was applied to the individualized auditory cortex peak activation site. Outcome measures included the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at baseline, post-treatment, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups. Resting-state fMRI was used to analyze amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Functional connectivity (FC) analysis was performed to explore the network-level changes.

RESULTS: Clinically, cTBS was associated with a rapid reduction in VAS-rated tinnitus loudness (p = 0.004), while low-frequency rTMS demonstrated sustained improvements in THI scores up to the 3-month follow-up (p = 0.007). Mixed-model ANCOVA yielded significant time-by-group interactions for THI and VAS, verifying different therapeutic profiles between cTBS and rTMS. Resting-state fMRI uncovered separable brain plasticity: cTBS induced focal changes in left auditory cortex, whereas rTMS remodeled extensive limbic-cognitive networks. Two-way ANCOVA confirmed shared left prefrontal interaction signals, supporting stronger prefrontal suppression by cTBS. Baseline tinnitus duration was negatively correlated with 3-month THI improvement rates. Collectively, clinical and dual resting-state imaging results identified separable therapeutic and neuromodulatory signatures of cTBS and low-frequency rTMS.

CONCLUSION: Our exploratory results suggest that cTBS may facilitate a rapid reduction in tinnitus loudness possibly through focal auditory modulation, while low-frequency rTMS eases persistent tinnitus distress through large-scale network remodeling. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for the divergent prefrontal inhibitory profiles of the two inhibitory protocols. Shorter tinnitus duration predicts better therapeutic outcomes, highlighting the value of early intervention. These exploratory results provide evidence for personalized TMS-based neuromodulation in chronic tinnitus.

PMID:42876536 | PMC:PMC13661314 | DOI:10.3389/fneur.2026.1921227

Alzheimers Res Ther. 2026 Oct 12;18(1):232. doi: 10.1186/s13195-026-02230-1.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Neuroinflammation is implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, yet how changes in TSPO PET signal are associated with tau deposition, and how brain network architecture shapes this relationship remain poorly understood.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective, multimodal neuroimaging study in 56 participants: 35 amyloid-positive individuals across the AD spectrum (ADS) and 21 amyloid-negative healthy controls (HC). Amyloid status was classified primarily by CSF Aβ42/Aβ40 and, when eligible CSF was unavailable, by baseline amyloid PET. Participants underwent TSPO PET using [18 F]GE-180 and resting-state fMRI at baseline. A longitudinal subgroup additionally underwent follow-up tau PET using [18 F]PI-2620 (n = 24) and repeat TSPO PET (n = 18) approximately 18 months later.

RESULTS: Baseline TSPO did not differ significantly between groups. Baseline TSPO was associated with regional tau in both groups; the reciprocal association between tau and TSPO change was numerically weaker in AD, but this group difference was not statistically significant. Connectivity to baseline-TSPO epicenters was associated with higher tau in both groups, whereas connectivity to TSPO-change epicenters was associated with lower tau in AD but not controls (group-by-connectivity interaction p < 0.001, participant-level slope difference p = 0.012), a dissociation replicated in independent participants.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that connectivity to established versus emerging TSPO epicenters carries distinct spatial information about tau in the AD spectrum, a pattern shaped by functional brain connectivity and absent in healthy controls. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT06224920).

PMID:42875788 | DOI:10.1186/s13195-026-02230-1

NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2026 Oct 12;12(1):251. doi: 10.1038/s41531-026-01509-2.

ABSTRACT

The pathophysiology underlying Parkinson's disease (PD) speech impairments and its potential sex differences remain unclear. We investigated sex-specific alterations in speech and striato-cortical networks in 104 patients with early PD (68M/36F), and 44 healthy controls (23M/21F), using quantitative speech markers and multimodal neuroimaging. Speech features related to prosody, phonation, articulation, fluency, and rhythm, were extracted from voice recordings; striatal dopaminergic loss was quantified using DaT-SPECT, and functional connectivity between striatal and cortical language networks was analyzed with resting-state fMRI. Results showed that PD-related speech impairments were more pronounced in males. Functional connectivity was globally reduced in PD, but female patients exhibited higher caudate-cortical connectivity. In males, speech deficits were associated with both dopaminergic loss and connectivity disruption, whereas in females, only connectivity changes were involved. These findings revealed sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms in early PD speech disorders, emphasizing the need for sex-stratified approaches in research and clinical practice.

PMID:42875444 | DOI:10.1038/s41531-026-01509-2

Magn Reson Med Sci. 2026;25(4). doi: 10.2463/mrms.mp.2026-0032.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Functional MRI (fMRI) has been established as a technique for capturing functional changes based on brain activity and is widely used to evaluate various diseases and physiological conditions. However, studies that systematically evaluate functional brain networks during arousal-reducing agent-induced sleep in mice by using resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) are limited. This study aimed to compare and analyze whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) and reorganization patterns of large-scale brain functional networks in the mouse brain during arousal-reducing agent-induced sleep, focusing on arousal-reducing agents acting on different arousal regulatory systems.

METHODS: Sixteen healthy male C57BL/6JmsSlc mice (aged 16.4 ± 8.7 week) were used in this study. The mice were assigned to 4 groups: control, zolpidem (20 mg/kg), lemborexant (40 mg/kg), and dexmedetomidine (75 μg/kg). rsfMRI was performed using a 9.4T MRI system equipped with an 86 mm volume transmit coil and an 8-channel receive-only coil (Bruker BioSpin, Ettlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany). After head post-surgery and habituation, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) images were acquired using a gradient-echo echo-planar imaging (GRE-EPI) sequence (TR/TE = 1500/14 ms). Each mouse underwent six 10 min imaging sessions. fMRI data were preprocessed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, London, UK) and analyzed using the CONN FC toolbox (McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA). ROI × ROI FC matrices were calculated for each fMRI session. Group differences were assessed using linear mixed-effects models that accounted for repeated measurements within animals, individual variability, and age differences among groups.

RESULTS: Compared to the control group, the zolpidem group showed the smallest overall differences, whereas the dexmedetomidine group showed the largest differences. Furthermore, although relatively similar trends were observed between the groups in the distribution of mean correlation coefficients within each network, different trends were observed between the networks.

CONCLUSION: In addition to network reorganization associated with the sleep-inducing state, which is commonly observed regardless of the arousal-reducing agent type, distinct network changes exhibiting arousal-reducing agent-specific connectivity patterns were observed.

PMID:42875193 | DOI:10.2463/mrms.mp.2026-0032

Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2026 Oct 14:104656. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2026.104656. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Breathing modulates neural oscillations and large-scale brain network organization, partly through mechanical stimulation of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs). To investigate the mechanosensory contribution of olfactory input, we compared rhythmic, odorless nasal air-puff stimulation (~0.2Hz) with oral breathing during resting-state fMRI in healthy adults (n = 21). Dynamic functional connectivity was analyzed using a hidden Markov model (HMM) applied to BOLD fluctuations centered on the stimulation frequency. Four recurrent brain states were identified, spanning a continuum from highly segregated to globally integrated configurations. Relative to oral breathing, nasal air-puff stimulation increased the fractional occupancy and lifetime of the integrated state characterized by higher global and local efficiency and lower modularity, reduced the overall switching rate, and selectively reshaped transition probabilities away from fragmented configurations. These effects partially reproduced key features observed during natural nasal breathing in our prior work, suggesting that rhythmic mechanosensory activation of OSNs contributes to the stabilization of integrated large-scale brain states. The findings support a respiration-entrained framework in which olfactory input contributes to the organization and temporal stability of large-scale brain networks.

PMID:42874948 | DOI:10.1016/j.resp.2026.104656

Psychiatry Res. 2026 Oct 9;367:117507. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117507. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with developmental delays and brain functional abnormalities. Vitamin D is thought to play an important role in neurodevelopment and brain function, but its association with brain functional metrics in ASD remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, brain function, and developmental outcomes in children with ASD.

METHODS: We included 207 children with ASD and 209 typically developing (TD) children. Serum 25(OH)D levels were measured in all participants. Clinical assessments and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) were conducted in the ASD group. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) were used to characterize rs-fMRI metrics, and mediation analyses were performed to assess whether these measures mediated the relationship between 25(OH)D levels and developmental outcomes.

RESULTS: Children with ASD showed significantly lower serum 25(OH)D levels compared with TD children. Among ASD children, higher 25(OH)D levels were associated with lower Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) scores and better performance in multiple developmental domains. Mediation analyses revealed that ReHo in the left lingual gyrus and right fusiform gyrus significantly mediated the associations between 25(OH)D levels and specific developmental outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Children with ASD exhibited reduced serum 25(OH)D levels, and serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly associated with both clinical measures and specific rs-fMRI metrics within the ASD group. Specific brain functional metrics may play mediating roles in the associations between vitamin D status and developmental outcomes, providing insights into potential neurobiological pathways related to ASD.

PMID:42874280 | DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117507

Psychiatry Res. 2026 Oct 8;367:117514. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117514. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The lateral habenula (LHb) is a critical hub for encoding aversive signals and regulating negative motivation in depression, yet the systemic alterations in functional connectivity and topological architecture of LHb-centered whole-brain networks induced by chronic stress remain unclear.

METHODS: This study characterized LHb-associated network changes in chronic social defeat stress (CSDS)-induced depressive-like male mice using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, including fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), static/dynamic functional connectivity (sFC/dFC) and graph theory analysis, combined with a battery of behavioral assessments.

RESULTS: CSDS-susceptible mice exhibited typical depressive phenotypes (social avoidance, anhedonia, behavioral despair), accompanied by elevated spontaneous neuronal activity in the LHb, robust hyperconnectivity between the LHb and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and significantly reduced dFC variability between the LHb and subcortical regions (hippocampus, hypothalamus, midbrain). Graph theory analysis further revealed a disrupted small-world topology of the LHb-centered network, with decreased global/local efficiency, reduced clustering coefficient and increased characteristic path length.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings reveal that chronic stress exposure is associated with LHb hyperactivity and widespread fronto-limbic and subcortical network remodeling. The functional and topological LHb signatures identified herein may serve as candidate biomarkers indicating stress susceptibility. This study offers multi-layered interpretative clues for network-level alterations linked to stress-associated depressive manifestations, and identifies the LHb connectome as a promising circuit candidate for follow-up targeted interventional research of mood disorders.

PMID:42874279 | DOI:10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117514

Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2027 Dec;29(1):24-31. doi: 10.1080/19585969.2026.2710912. Epub 2026 Oct 14.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Resting‑state fMRI is widely used to map brain connectivity, yet the field lacks a clear, data‑driven standard for acquisition duration. We compared traditional Single‑Band (SB) imaging with an accelerated Multiband factor 4 (MB4) protocol to identify a time‑efficient approach for capturing stable network topology.

METHODS: Twenty‑five healthy young adults completed two sessions one month apart, each including counterbalanced 13‑minute SB and MB4 scans. Test-retest reliability was evaluated across multiple durations using Portrait Divergence, a multiscale graph‑theoretic metric. Supplementary analyses compared Portrait Divergence with the field-standard Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, assessed robustness across preprocessing pipelines and parcellation schemes, and examined MB4's ability to capture both cortical and subcortical connectivity.

RESULTS: MB4 consistently outperformed SB across all tested durations, with peak topological stability at 9 minutes. Stability declined beyond this point, likely due to cumulative motion artefacts. Supplementary analyses confirmed MB4's robustness across preprocessing strategies and atlas choices and demonstrated effective whole‑brain coverage.

CONCLUSIONS: In healthy young adults, MB4 captures network topology more effectively than SB and reaches peak stability at 9 minutes before declining, challenging the assumption that longer scans are always better. These findings require validation in clinical, paediatric, and geriatric cohorts.

PMID:42872790 | DOI:10.1080/19585969.2026.2710912

Front Neurol. 2026 Sep 29;17:1924955. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2026.1924955. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To observe the modulatory effects of acupuncture in early-stage non-tremor Parkinson's disease (PD) patients using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), and to determine the correlation between its changes and clinical indicators.

METHODS: This observational study included 35 patients with early Parkinson's disease who received multi-target acupuncture treatment combined with regular levodopa therapy (twice weekly for 12 weeks) in the traditional Chinese medicine department. They were classified as the observation group and the study period was from January 2023 to December 2024. The observation group received acupuncture and underwent rs-fMRI scanning at baseline and post-treatment. A healthy control group underwent a single rs-fMRI scan at baseline. Post-treatment imaging and clinical data from the observation group were compared with those of the healthy control group. Primary outcomes were changes in rs-fMRI-derived degree centrality (DC), functional connectivity (FC), and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF). Secondary outcomes included clinical scale improvements and correlations between imaging metrics and clinical scores.

RESULTS: After treatment, the observation group showed significant improvements in MDS-UPDRS-III, MoCA, 10MWT, TUG, and PDQ-39 scores (all p < 0.001). However, all indicators except MoCA remained significantly different after treatment (p < 0.001). fMRI analyses revealed significant post-treatment decreases in right precuneus DC and its FC with the left precuneus (both p < 0.001), the fALFF in medial superior frontal gyrus/anterior cingulate cortex increased(p < 0.001). The change (post-treatment minus pre-treatment) in right precuneus DC was positively correlated with the change (post-treatment minus pre-treatment) in MDS-UPDRS-III scores (r = 0.343, p = 0.043) and negatively correlated with the change (post-treatment minus pre-treatment) in MoCA scores (r = -0.533, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Acupuncture treatment was associated with improvements in motor function, walking speed, and cognition in early-stage non-tremor PD, with potential mechanisms involving downregulated precuneus DC/FC and enhanced local activity. Furthermore, the change in right precuneus DC, which correlated significantly with both motor and cognitive improvements, may serve as a potential neuroimaging biomarker for treatment-induced clinical recovery.

PMID:42870954 | PMC:PMC13658071 | DOI:10.3389/fneur.2026.1924955

Postgrad Med. 2026 Oct 14:1-9. doi: 10.1080/00325481.2026.2739000. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Postmenopausal osteoporosis and circulating osteocalcin have been suggested to influence brain function. Objectives aim to explore associations between brain network resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) connectivity, bone status, and circulating osteocalcin with the hypothesis of an impairment of the bone-brain axis in osteoporosis.

METHODS: This pilot fMRI case-control study included postmenopausal osteoporosis women and matched healthy volunteers, and took place in University Hospital, Clermont-Fd, France. Endpoints were the comparisons between cases and controls of intra- and internetworks connectivity and correlations with bone mineral density (BMD) and osteocalcin.

RESULTS: Twenty women with osteoporosis and ten matched healthy volunteers were included. Salience, visual and language intranetwork connectivity were all decreased compared to controls (False Discovery Rate (FDR)-corrected p = 0.006, 0.0132 and 0.0199, respectively). Internetwork connectivity was also impaired. For visual network, with three regions of the default mode (p-FDR = 0.0265, 0.0296 and 0.0265) and one with dorsal attention network (p-FDR = 0.0296), and for salience, with dorsal attention networks (p-FDR = 0.0494). Circulating osteocalcin correlated with connectivity between right anterior insula (salience network) and bilateral intraparietal sulci (dorsal attention network) (p-FDR = 0.0145 right side, p-FDR = 0.0421 left side). BMD correlated with connectivity between left regions of the dorsal attention and language networks (p-FDR = 0.0164).

CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggests possible impairment of brain connectivity and compensatory protective mechanisms/maladaptive mechanisms in postmenopausal osteoporosis. It also unveils that lower osteocalcin concentrations and BMD may be associated with altered cerebral connectivity, confirming animal studies, and providing preliminary findings for further research.

PMID:42870572 | DOI:10.1080/00325481.2026.2739000

Cereb Cortex. 2026 Oct 5;36(10):bhag168. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhag168.

ABSTRACT

Preterm birth is associated with altered maturation of large-scale functional brain networks during the neonatal period. Acquisition and preprocessing variability across neonatal resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) studies limits cross-site comparability and may obscure prematurity-related alterations. We combined rs-fMRI data from 90 local preterm infants scanned at term-equivalent age (TEA) with data from 160 infants in the Developing Human Connectome Project (100 term-born and 60 preterm) to evaluate cross-site harmonization and characterize edge-wise functional connectivity and network efficiency. Data were preprocessed using an identical pipeline in SPM and CONN toolbox, harmonized with neuroCombat, and analyzed using per-edge analysis of covariance for connectivity and linear mixed-effects models for graph efficiency. Harmonization substantially reduced site-related variance and improved cross-site comparability. Relative to term-born controls, preterm infants showed widespread edge-wise hypoconnectivity, with only limited focal hyperconnectivity. Graph-theoretical analysis revealed reduced local alongside modestly increased global network efficiency in preterm infants, whereas regional connection-class composition did not interact with group. These findings support the feasibility of harmonizing multi-site neonatal rs-fMRI data and suggest that prematurity at TEA is characterized by widespread functional hypoconnectivity and a shift in the balance between local network segregation and large-scale functional integration.

PMID:42870548 | DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhag168

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2026 Oct 5;82:101837. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101837. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Maternal perinatal psychological distress (e.g., anxiety, depression) is common and has been linked to adverse child behavioural outcomes. Altered brain function provides a potential mechanism through which perinatal distress may impact child behaviour, but specific associations remain unclear. This study investigated associations between perinatal distress, child brain functional connectivity at 2 years, and child behaviour at 2 and 3 years.

METHODS: Neuroimaging and behavioural data were obtained from the Pregnancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic (PdP) study. Maternal distress (anxiety and depression symptoms) was self-reported throughout the perinatal period; analyses included measures from intake survey and 2 years postpartum. Child behaviour at 2 and 3 years was parent-reported using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Resting-state fMRI data was collected at 2 years (n = 62) to quantify connectivity within the default mode, executive control, frontoparietal, and sensorimotor networks. Associations between maternal prenatal and postnatal distress, child functional connectivity, and child behaviour were examined using regression models.

RESULTS: Postnatal, but not prenatal, distress was associated with lower gross motor scores at 2 years (B = -0.5, T = -2.8, p = 0.005, df = 3517, q = 0.01). Higher distress both prenatally and postnatally was associated with lower ASQ-3 scores at 3 years across all domains (q < 0.05). Child brain connectivity was not related to maternal distress or behaviour.

CONCLUSIONS: Perinatal distress was associated with worse behaviour at 2 and 3 years, although no associations with connectivity were observed, suggesting other pathways may underlie these effects. Nonetheless, these findings highlight the importance of supporting mental health during pregnancy and postnatally to promote healthy child development.

PMID:42869868 | DOI:10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101837

Stat Med. 2026 Oct;45(23-24):e70769. doi: 10.1002/sim.70769.

ABSTRACT

Changepoint analysis for time series data identifies the time points for which properties about the data shift. In this paper, we are motivated by two distinct types of biomedical time series data: digital health monitoring and neuroimaging. The neuroimaging study consists of multivariate time series obtained from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The digital health monitoring data consists of binary univariate time series observed within an individual throughout the day across multiple days of activity. The goal of the analysis is to model how physical activity changes within a day over a period of 56 days. The goal in the analysis of that data is to determine the association between dynamic functional connectivity (dFC), which is the interaction between different brain regions and how this interaction changes over time, and severity of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). In this paper, we leverage the framework of generalized linear mixed models to incorporate structure that is present in biomedical time series data for changepoint analysis. This structure could be, for example, the repeated measures of the time series data within an individual across multiple days or the interconnected community structure of brain networks. We embed the mixed model in a dynamic programming algorithm for detecting multiple changepoints. We evaluate the performance of our proposed method across several scenarios using simulations. Finally, we show the utility of our proposed method on our two distinct motivating applications.

PMID:42869620 | DOI:10.1002/sim.70769

Brain Res. 2026 Oct 13:150603. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150603. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study aimed to characterize dynamic functional network connectivity (dFNC) alterations in spinal cord injury-induced neuropathic pain (SCI-NP) and dFNC-related metrics as biomarkers for treatment guidance. A total of 23 SCI individuals with NP (SCI-NP), 20 SCI individuals without NP (SCI-N), and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. SCI-NP individuals were predominantly chronic (≥12 months post-injury), whereas SCI-N individuals were predominantly acute/subacute (<12 months post-injury). Resting-state fMRI data were analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA) combined with a sliding-window approach to characterize dFNC. Recurring connectivity states were identified using clustering algorithms. Group differences were assessed using ANCOVA, adjusting for age and sex. P values were FDR-corrected for multiple comparisons. Spearman's correlation analyses examined associations between dFNC metrics and pain and clinical scores. Twenty-two whole-brain independent components were identified, and seven functionally meaningful components were selected for dFNC analysis, which revealed six distinct connectivity states. Compared with the SCI-N group, the SCI-NP individuals showed increased State 1 connectivity between the medial visual network (mVN) and sensorimotor network (SMN) and between the default mode network (DMN) and SMN (both p < 0.05, uncorrected), reflecting enhanced cross-modal sensory integration and maladaptive plasticity commonly observed in chronic neuropathic pain. In contrast, State 6 exhibited significantly reduced DMN-visual network (VN) connectivity in the SCI-NP group (p < 0.05, uncorrected), representing a low-interaction resting configuration that may reflect preserved functional segregation preferentially maintained in the SCI-N group. The SCI-NP individuals had shorter mean dwell time (p = 0.04, uncorrected) and fraction of time (p = 0.03, uncorrected) in State 6 relative to SCI-N individuals. None of these differences survived FDR correction.These findings indicate that SCI-NP individuals exhibit state-specific dynamic connectivity disturbances, including maladaptive hyperconnectivity involving sensorimotor, visual, and default mode networks. Metrics of dFNC-including state-specific connectivity and dwell time may serve as sensitive imaging features for guiding targeted rehabilitation strategies in SCI-NP.

PMID:42869158 | DOI:10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150603