Objectives Patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) are at increased risk of cognitive impairment, but the underlying alterations in resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate changes in resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling and their associations with clinical characteristics and cognitive function in DKD. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and arterial spin labeling (ASL) were performed in 36 patients with DKD, 36 patients without DKD, and 37 healthy controls. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) derived from rs-fMRI and cerebral blood flow (CBF) derived from ASL were used to calculate the ALFF-CBF coupling coefficient, which was used to characterize resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling. Cognitive function was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) before MRI examination. Laboratory tests were also performed, and correlations with clinical variables and MoCA scores were analyzed. Compared with the non-DKD group, the DKD group showed significantly reduced resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling in several brain regions. In the DKD group, glycated hemoglobin A1c levels negatively correlated with resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling in the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus, while hemoglobin levels positively correlated with resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling in multiple brain areas. And resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling in the left hippocampus was linked to MoCA score. DKD patients exhibited more pronounced alterations in resting-state BOLD-CBF coupling compared to non-DKD patients, potentially linked to elevated blood glucose levels.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment represents a prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease characterized by episodic memory deficits and subtle alterations in brain function. Although the traditional herbal formula Kami Guibi-tang (KGT) has been reported to exert cognitive benefits, its neural effects have not been evaluated using functional neuroimaging. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 84 individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment received either KGT or placebo for 24 weeks. A total of 73 participants (36 in the KGT group and 37 in the placebo group) completed the intervention and were included in the final analyses. All participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a face-name association task and a working memory task, as well as resting-state scans. Task-based imaging data were analyzed using voxel-wise and region-of-interest approaches, and associations between changes in task-related activation and cognitive performance were also examined. Resting-state functional connectivity was analyzed to examine regional connectivity changes. At baseline, the placebo group showed greater activation in memory- and attention-related regions, including the posterior cingulate cortex, frontal areas, and thalamus. These voxel-wise differences were no longer observed after the intervention. Region-of-interest analyses using linear mixed-effects models revealed significant group × time interactions in several frontal, cingulate, and thalamic regions, with activation declining in the placebo group but remaining relatively preserved or showing modest increases in the KGT group. Resting-state analyses further demonstrated increased connectivity between the left precuneus and right posterior cingulate cortex following KGT administration. These findings suggest that KGT may modulate brain activity and connectivity in regions involved in episodic and working memory. While preliminary, these results provide neuroimaging-based evidence for its potential effects on memory-related neural processes in the early stages of cognitive decline.

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are commonly experienced in people with chronic pain. Reduced white matter microstructural integrity in the uncinate fasciculus and the cingulum has separately been reported in chronic pain and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) studies. However, the relationship between chronic pain, PTSS and white matter integrity remains unclear. This study aims to disentangle the relationship between PTSS severity and white matter microstructural integrity common across different chronic pain conditions. Thirty-six subjects with chronic pain and 20 without chronic pain (controls) underwent diffusion weighted imaging and completed the civilian version of the PTSD CheckList (PCL-C). Average fractional anisotropy (FA) values were extracted from the uncinate fasciculus, and the cingulate and hippocampal portions of the cingulum. A series of multiple linear regressions determined the main effects of group, PTSS severity (PCL-C total score) and their interactions on each region separately. The group-by-PTSS interaction was significantly associated with uncinate fasciculus FA variations. Moderation analysis indicated that increasing PTSS severity was significantly associated with reduced uncinate fasciculus FA in the control group, but not in the chronic pain group. No other significant association was found for any other ROI FA values. Consistent with previous studies, increasing PTSS levels were associated with reduced FA of the uncinate fasciculus in controls, but not in people with chronic pain. Other mechanisms may be at play in chronic pain, including the interplay with other psychopathological problems or specific pain type effects.

Following its emergence in Wuhan, COVID-19 has been associated with neurological sequalae, pathophysiological basis of which has been under investigation from the early reports. Herein, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview on white matter microstructural findings in COVID-19 patents. We performed a systematic literature search on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases on February 9th, 2025, using the combination of keywords related to COVID-19, DTI, and NODDI. Study selection and data extraction was performed to provide a qualitative synthesis of the data. Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were the most reported diffusion parameters. Significant alterations in diffusion parameters of longitudinal fasciculi, thalamic radiations, corpus callosum (CC), fronto-occipital fasciculus (FOF), cortico-spinal tract (CST) and uncinate fasciculi (UF) were repeatedly reported among in the studies, of which the results on changes in CR and LF were almost consistent. The observed changes in white matter microstructural integrity are associated with the psychiatric and cognitive symptoms in post-COVID-19 phase. This observation warrants long-term follow-up of COVID-19 patients for the potential neurological sequalae of this disease.

Language abilities are heterogeneous in autism spectrum disorder. Functional neuroimaging offers critical insights into the developmental trajectory of language in autism, with the potential to inform tailored supports. Unlike previous non-systematic or modality-specific reviews, this systematic review aimed to identify developmental trajectories in autistic children and elevated likelihood infants across functional neuroimaging modalities. Across the included 31 studies, EEG was the most common modality (39%), followed by fMRI (26%), MEG (26%), and fNIRS (9%). Most studies (77%) used passive awake tasks; around half employed simple speech stimuli (55%) while the remainder used complex speech (45%). There was an underrepresentation of minimally and nonspeaking autistic participants. fMRI and fNIRS studies found that elevated likelihood infants displayed hypoactivation in bilateral temporal regions, which did not consistently continue into mid-to-late childhood. EEG and MEG studies indicate that the timing and magnitude of auditory-perceptual and higher-order linguistic processing remained atypical (e.g., delayed latencies, larger amplitudes) from infancy to late childhood. Across modalities, findings were sometimes inconsistent, particularly when accounting for variability in language abilities. We highlight a strong need for caution in generalizing findings and argue that future research should prioritize more diverse samples to better elucidate the neural trajectory of language in autism.