Brain network dynamics in patients with single- and multiple-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment

INTRODUCTION: Brain network dynamics have been extensively explored in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI); however, differences in single- and multiple-domain aMCI (SD-aMCI and MD-aMCI) remain unclear. METHODS: Using multicenter datasets, coactivation patterns (CAPs) were constructed and compared among normal control (NC), SD-aMCI, MD-aMCI, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients based on individual high-order cognitive network (HOCN) and primary sensory network (PSN) parcellations. Correlations between spatiotemporal characteristics and neuropsychological scores were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared to NC, SD-aMCI showed temporal alterations in HOCN-dominant CAPs, while MD-aMCI showed alterations in PSN-dominant CAPs. In addition, transitions from SD-aMCI to AD may involve PSN, while MD-aMCI to AD involves both PSN and HOCN. Results were generally consistent across datasets from Chinese and White populations. DISCUSSION: The HOCN and PSN are distinctively involved in aMCI subtypes and in the transformation between aMCI subtypes and AD, highlighting the necessity of aMCI subtype classification in AD studies. Highlights: Individual functional network parcellations and coactivation pattern (CAP) analysis were performed to characterize spatiotemporal differences between single- and multiple-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment (SD-aMCI and MD-aMCI), and between distinct aMCI subtypes and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The analysis of multicenter datasets converged on four pairs of recurrent CAPs, including primary sensory networks (PSN)-dominant CAPs, high-order cognitive networks (HOCN)-dominant CAPs, and PSN–HOCN-interacting CAPs. The HOCN and PSN are distinctively involved in aMCI subtypes and in the transformation between distinct aMCI subtypes and AD.