A major emphasis has been placed on the symptom related brain alterations caused by dopamine deficiency, the brain organization underlying the norepinephrine deficiency is largely unknown. We used the neuromelanin sensitive-magnetic resonance imaging for evaluating the degeneration of LC, and using graph theory-based network analysis for characterizing the brain functional topology in 94 PD patients and 68 healthy controls.Relationships between LC degeneration, network disruption and cognitive/motor manifestations in PD patients were assessed.An independent PD subgroup with MRI scanning before and after levodopa administration was enrolled to clarify whether LC degeneration related network disruption were independent of dopamine deficiency.
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