Exploring joint patterns of brain structure and function in inflammatory bowel diseases using multimodal data fusion

• Published in: Neurogastroenterology and motility Vol. 33; no. 6; pp. e14078 - n/a
• Main Authors: Thomann, Anne Kerstin, Schmitgen, Mike Michael, Kmuche, Dagny, Ebert, Matthias Philip, Thomann, Philipp Arthur, Szabo, Kristina, Gass, Achim, Griebe, Martin, Reindl, Wolfgang, Wolf, Robert Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2021
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety - psychology; Bowel disease; Brain - diagnostic imaging; brain imaging; Brain Mapping; brain‐gut‐axis; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Colitis, Ulcerative - diagnostic imaging; Colitis, Ulcerative - psychology; Crohn Disease - diagnostic imaging; Crohn Disease - psychology; Crohn's disease; data fusion; Depression - psychology; Fatigue - psychology; Female; Frontal gyrus; Functional anatomy; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - psychology; Intestine; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Morphometry; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Rectum; Remission; Self Report; Statistical analysis; Structure-function relationships; Ulcerative colitis; brain imaging; brain-gut-axis; data fusion; Inflammatory bowel diseases; magnetic resonance imaging; Crohn's disease; ulcerative colitis
• ISSN: 1350-1925; 1365-2982
• DOI: 10.1111/nmo.14078

Background A growing number of neuroimaging studies suggest distinct neural changes in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Whether such changes may show similar spatial patterns across distinct neural features within and between specific IBD is unclear. To address this question, we used multivariate multimodal data fusion analysis to investigate structure/function modulation in remitted patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods Patients with IBD (n = 46; n = 31 with CD, n = 15 with UC) in stable remission and 17 healthy controls (HC) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs‐fMRI) as well as cognitive testing. Anxiety, depression, and fatigue were assessed using self‐rating questionnaires. sMRI data were analyzed via voxel‐based morphometry (VBM) and rs‐fMRI data via amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) and regional homogeneity (ReHo). Detection of cross‐information between VBM, ALFF, and ReHo was conducted by means of a joint independent component analysis (jICA), followed by group‐inference statistics. Key results Joint independent component analysis detected structural alterations in middle frontal and temporal regions (VBM), and functional changes in the superior frontal gyrus (ReHo) and the medial as well as inferior frontal, inferior temporal, rectal, and subcallosal gyrus (ALFF). One joint component of extracted features of the three modalities differed significantly between IBD patients and controls (p = 0.03), and most distinctly between HC and patients with UC. Conclusions and inferences Using a multivariate data fusion technique, this study provides further evidence to brain alterations in IBD. The data suggest distinct neural differences between CD and UC, particularly in frontotemporal regions. Using a multivariate statistical approach for joint analysis of structural and functional neuroimaging data, frontotemporal network changes were detected in persons with inflammatory bowel diseases compared to healthy controls.