Impaired Interhemispheric Synchrony in Bronchial Asthma

Abstract Objective: Converging evidence demonstrated that bronchial asthma (BA) individuals with intermittent hypoxia were associated with functional and morphological reorganization in the brain. However, the alterations of the interhemispheric functional connectivity in BA individuals remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess the interhemispheric functional connectivity changes in individuals with intermittent hypoxia due to BA using voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) methods.Methods: In total, 31 BA individuals (17 males and 14 females) and 30 healthy controls (HCs) (15 males and 15 females) closely matched in age, sex, and education underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. VMHC analysis was performed to investigate differences in interhemispheric functional connectivity between the two groups. Then, a seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analysis was conducted to further reveal the abnormal functional connectivity between the altered VMHC regions and the whole brain. Results: Compared with HCs, BA individuals had significantly lower VMHC values in the bilateral basal ganglia/thalamus/insula, cuneus/calcarine/lingual gyrus [brodmann area (BA) 17/18/19], precentral and postcentral gyrus (BA 3/4/6).[voxel level P<0.01, Gaussian random field (GRF) correction, cluster level P < 0.05]. Taking VMHC altered brain areas as seed points, the rsFC values of left insula/supramarginal/postcentral gyrus (PostCG) / inferior parietal lobule (IPL) brain areas in BA patients were increased, and rsFC values of right basic ganglia / thalamus, left caudate/antioxidant cingulate and bilateral cuneus/calcarine/lingual gyrus/precentral gyrus (PreCG)/PostCG were decreased in BA patients.Conclusion: The abnormal resting-state functional connectivity of BA patients is altered in specific brain regions related to the basal ganglia network, visual network, and sensorimotor network, which may be related to the neuropathogenesis of asthma patients. Furthermore, these VMHC and FC values may be important clinical indicators for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma patients.