Decoding pulvinar dysfunction in parkinson's disease dementia: Linking brain networks and structural alterations to cognitive impairment

This study aimed to examine functional connectivity and grey matter volume differences in the pulvinar sub-regions between healthy controls (HCs) and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with dementia. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and T1-weighted images were collected from 20 HCs (10 males, 10 females; mean age 65.45±7.53) and 20 PD patients with dementia (9 males, 11 females; mean age 66.75±7.87). Functional data were pre-processed using SPM12 and CONN software. ROI-based rs-fMRI and grey matter volume analyses were conducted to compare functional connectivity and grey matter volume, respectively. After controlling for age, education, and gender, PD patients with dementia showed significantly lower functional connectivity of the right anterior pulvinar (PuA) to bilateral temporal regions (Cluster 1: p = 0.000919 and Cluster 2: p = 0.038627, FDR-corrected) and reduced right PuA volume compared to HCs (p = 0.044). These functional differences correlated with Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) scores (cluster 1 r = -0.641, p = 0.006), as well as with right PuA volume loss (cluster 1: r = 0387, p = 0.016 and cluster 2: r = 0.350, p = 0.031). The findings suggest that reduced functional connectivity and volume in the right anterior pulvinar are associated with cognitive symptoms in PD with dementia, highlighting the pulvinar's role in cognitive deficits linked to neurodegeneration.