Altered Cerebro-Cerebellar Limbic Network in AD Spectrum: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Recent evidence suggests that the cerebellum is related to motor and non-motor cognitive functions, and that several coupled cerebro-cerebellar networks exist, including links with the limbic network. Since several limbic structures are affected by Alzheimer pathology, even in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), we aimed to investigate the cerebral limbic network activity from the perspective of the cerebellum. Twenty patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 18 patients with AD, and 26 healthy controls (HC) were recruited to acquire Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). We used seed-based approach to construct the cerebro-cerebellar limbic network. Two-sample t-tests were carried out to explore the differences of the cerebellar limbic network connectivity. The first result, a sub-scale network including the bilateral posterior part of the orbitofrontal cortex (POFC) extending to the anterior insular cortex (AIC) and left inferior parietal lobule (L-IPL), showed greater functional connectivity in MCI than in HC and less functional connectivity in AD than in MCI. The location of this sub-scale network was in accordance with components of the ventral attention network. Second, there was decreased functional connectivity to the right mid-cingulate cortex (MCC) in the AD and MCI patient groups relative to the HC group. As the cerebellum is not compromised by Alzheimer pathology in the prodromal stage of AD, this pattern indicates that the sub-scale ventral attention network may play a pivotal role in functional compensation through the coupled cerebro-cerebellar limbic network in MCI, and the cerebellum may be a key node in the modulation of social cognition.