Graph Theory Further Revealed Visual Spatial Working Memory Impairment in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Background

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients may experience cognitive impairments in Visuospatial Working Memory (VSWM), significantly impacting their quality of life. However, the mechanisms underlying these impairments remain poorly understood.

Methods

We studied functional MRI and graph theory analysis to investigate changes in functional connectivity networks during the Mental Rotation Task (MRT) in IBD patients. Twenty IBD patients (13 males, 7 females; mean age = 34.95 ± 13.80 years; mean disease duration = 2.43 ± 2.37 years) participated in the study. Exclusion criteria encompassed recent use of analgesics, 5-Aminosalicylate, corticosteroids, or immunosuppressants within the past three months. Additionally, we recruited 20 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls for comparison.

Results

Compared to a control group, IBD patients exhibited significantly longer reaction times and reduced accuracy during the MRT. Our analysis revealed abnormalities in multiple nodal attributes within the functional connectivity network, particularly in regions such as the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex, right supplementary motor area, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, and bilateral anterior temporal lobe. We observed that the nodal efficiency in the left temporal pole is negatively correlated with Red Blood Cell Distribution Width (RDW) and positively correlated with response time of MRT.

Conclusion

Our findings revealed notable abnormalities in multiple node attributes among IBD patients during MRT, providing evidence of cognitive impairments in VSWM in IBD patients. This study found RDW maybe can serve as a clinical indicator for predicting early VSWM impairment in patients with IBD.

Keywords:

• inflammatory bowel disease
• graph theory
• visuospatial working memory
• cognitive impairment
• mental rotation task

Institutional Review Board Statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research involving human subjects, and approved by the Ethics Committee of The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, China (protocol code NO. B-2021-246).

Informed Consent Statement

All participants signed the written informed consent.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. All authors have read and approved the final submitted manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (GrantsNos.82004468, 82274657, and 81774395); the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grants Nos. 2019M663021); the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grants No. 2019A1515011744); the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (Grants No.2017A020215060); the Medical Science and Technology Research Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grants No. B2020138); the Shantou Technology Bureau Science Foundation of China (Grants No. [2019] 106); and the Grant for Key Disciplinary Project of Clinical Medicine under the Guangdong High-level University Development Program (Grant No. 002-18120302).