Complexity of intrinsic brain activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: patterns, association with structural damage, and clinical disability

Fuqing Zhou; Zhizheng Zhuo; Lin Wu; Yuxin Li; Ningnannan Zhang; Xuemei Han; Chun Zeng; Lei Wang; Xiaoya Chen; Muhua Huang; Yanyan Zhu; Haiqing Li; Guanmei Cao; Jie Sun; Yongmei Li; Yunyun Duan

doi:10.1007/s11547-024-01925-5

Complexity of intrinsic brain activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients: patterns, association with structural damage, and clinical disability

Radiol Med. 2025 Jan 7. doi: 10.1007/s11547-024-01925-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Fuqing Zhou¹, Zhizheng Zhuo², Lin Wu¹, Yuxin Li³, Ningnannan Zhang⁴, Xuemei Han⁵, Chun Zeng⁶, Lei Wang¹, Xiaoya Chen⁶, Muhua Huang¹, Yanyan Zhu¹, Haiqing Li³, Guanmei Cao², Jie Sun⁴, Yongmei Li⁷, Yunyun Duan⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi Province, China.
² Department of Radiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100070, China.
³ Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, 300052, China.
⁵ Department of Neurology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130031, Jilin Province, China.
⁶ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China.
⁷ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, China. [email protected].
⁸ Department of Radiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100070, China. [email protected].

PMID: 39775387
DOI: 10.1007/s11547-024-01925-5

Abstract

Functional plasticity has been demonstrated in multiple sclerosis (MS) studies. However, the intrinsic brain activity complexity alterations remain unclear. Here, using a coarse-graining time-series procedure algorithm, we obtained multiscale entropy (MSE) from a retrospective multi-centre dataset (208 relapsing-remitting MS patients and 228 healthy controls). By linear mixed model analysis, we demonstrated (1) increased entropy at scale 1 and decreased entropy at scale 6, indicating that regional brain activity shifted towards randomness in the stable MS subgroups (n = 159), and (2) decreased entropy across scales 1-6, trending towards regularity in the acute MS subgroups (n = 49). The main results of the correlation analysis included the following: (1) Decreased entropy was associated with lesion volume and brain volume specifically on longer time scales (scale 3-5), and (2) increased entropy of scale 3 was associated with clinical disability scores. These findings reflect the critical role of structural disruption in the brain activity complexity of BOLD signals in MS patients.

Keywords: Complexity; Entropy; Multiple sclerosis; Resting-state functional MRI.

Abstract

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