ACR Meeting Abstracts

ACR Meeting Abstracts

  • Meetings
    • ACR Convergence 2024
    • ACR Convergence 2023
    • 2023 ACR/ARP PRSYM
    • ACR Convergence 2022
    • ACR Convergence 2021
    • ACR Convergence 2020
    • 2020 ACR/ARP PRSYM
    • 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting
    • 2018-2009 Meetings
    • Download Abstracts
  • Keyword Index
  • Advanced Search
  • Your Favorites
    • Favorites
    • Login
    • View and print all favorites
    • Clear all your favorites
  • ACR Meetings

Abstract Number: 0164

Disrupted Executive Control Network Structural-Functional Integration Is Associated with Inferior Performance of Cognitive Switching Tasks in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

Xing Qian1, Danielle S Bassett2, Kwun Kei Ng1, Beatrice RY Loo1, Amelia J Koh1, Juan Helen Zhou1 and Anselm Mak3, 1Center for Sleep and Cognition, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, 2Departments of Physics & Astronomy, Bioengineering, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Neurology, and Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 3National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Meeting: ACR Convergence 2021

Keywords: BOLD, Brain, Cognitive dysfunction, Neuroimaging, Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
Session Information

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2021

Title: Imaging of Rheumatic Diseases Poster (0149–0182)

Session Type: Poster Session A

Session Time: 8:30AM-10:30AM

Background/Purpose: Cognitive flexibility, a process that enables goal-oriented cognitive switching between mental function modes, is central to executive function which is impaired in SLE patients. Multimodal integration of brain network anatomy and functional signals has recently been shown to mediate the cognitive switching process. Specifically, alignment between blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals and the architecture of the underlying white matter (WM) network is associated with higher cognitive flexibility. In SLE patients, whether WM networks that constrain brain dynamics during cognitive switching is altered remains unknown. Here, brain structural-functional alignment and liberality between SLE patients and healthy controls (HC) were studied by performing the Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (MCST) that probed cognitive flexibility. We hypothesized that the structural-functional integration of the executive control network (ECN) would be disrupted, with behavioral implications in SLE patients.

Methods: We studied 17 SLE patients without neuropsychiatric manifestation (aged 33.3±7.9 years) and 44 HC (aged 28.3±8.2 years). Functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during MCST, T1-weighted structural and diffusion MRI were conducted. Region-of-interest (ROI) time series were extracted using a 144-ROI brain functional parcellation scheme. We constructed the anatomical brain network by defining the connectivity between each pair of ROIs as the normalized connection probability derived from probabilistic diffusion tractography. BOLD signals were decomposed into a proportion that aligned with the anatomical network and a proportion that indicated liberality (Fig. 1). We performed group comparison on alignment and liberality at the global and network levels using two-sample t-tests (a=0.05) and evaluated their relationships with MCST performance.

Results: The two groups did not differ in overall MCST performance. SLE patients showed higher global functional liberality and lower global functional alignment with the structural networks during MCST (p=0.014 and 0.045, respectively) compared to HC. At the network level, SLE patients showed higher liberality in the ECN compared to HC (FDR-corrected, p=0.026). Focusing on the 3 ECN sub-networks (Fig. 2H), the abnormality of functional organization atop the ECN anatomy was driven by the lower alignment in ECN-A and higher liberality in ECN-A and ECN-B in SLE patients (FDR-corrected p=0.007, 0.008 and 0.026, respectively). ECN-A and ECN-B are the typical lateral fronto-parietal executive control regions while ECN-C is near to the default mode network. Higher liberality and lower alignment were correlated with reduced task accuracy (p< 0.05). The correlation between ECN liberality and task accuracy remained significant (p=0.023) after controlling for global liberality and alignment.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated reduced functional-structural alignment of the ECN in SLE patients using a novel graph signal processing method that constrained BOLD signal magnitude to the anatomical network architecture. Reduced functional-structural alignment was associated with poorer cognitive switching performance.

Figure 1. Study design schematic diagram. Subjects performed the Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (MCST) in which they were asked to match the stimulus card at the bottom of the screen to one of the four index cards displayed at top of the screen while undergoing functional MRI scan (A). Structural connectivity (SC) network was constructed using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for each individual based on a predefined set of 144 regions of interest (ROIs), which included 114 cortical ROIs and 30 subcortical regions (B & D). ROI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) time series were extracted from fMRI data and decomposed into a proportion which was aligned well with the structural network and a proportion which was liberal from the network (C, D, E & F). We conducted group comparison on functional alignment and liberality between SLE and healthy controls and examined the association of alignment and liberality with task performance (G). Abbreviations: DM: default mode, EC: executive control, SVA: salience/ventral attention, DA: dorsal attention, SM: somatomotor, Vis: visual, Sub: subcortical

Figure 2. Patients with SLE had higher liberality from anatomy and lower alignment with anatomy related to MCST performance. Patients with SLE showed higher mean liberality from anatomy and lower mean alignment with anatomy during MCST than HC (p<0.05, A&B). SLE patients showed higher mean liberality from anatomy in ECN (FDR corrected p<0.05) and a trend towards lower mean alignment in ECN during MCST than HC (C&D). Increased mean liberality in ECN was correlated with reduced task accuracy across SLE and HC groups (E). Amongst ECN sub-networks highlighted in the brain surfaces (H), ECN-A and ECN-B showed higher mean liberality from anatomy during MCST in SLE patients than HC, and ECN-A showed lower mean alignment with anatomy during MCST in SLE patients than HC (FDR corrected p<0.05, F&G). Error bars represent standard errors. Abbreviations: SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus, HC: healthy control, ECN: executive control network, MCST: Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test


Disclosures: X. Qian, None; D. Bassett, None; K. Ng, None; B. Loo, None; A. Koh, None; J. Zhou, None; A. Mak, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Qian X, Bassett D, Ng K, Loo B, Koh A, Zhou J, Mak A. Disrupted Executive Control Network Structural-Functional Integration Is Associated with Inferior Performance of Cognitive Switching Tasks in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2021; 73 (suppl 9). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/disrupted-executive-control-network-structural-functional-integration-is-associated-with-inferior-performance-of-cognitive-switching-tasks-in-patients-with-systemic-lupus-erythematosus-sle/. Accessed .
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

« Back to ACR Convergence 2021

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/disrupted-executive-control-network-structural-functional-integration-is-associated-with-inferior-performance-of-cognitive-switching-tasks-in-patients-with-systemic-lupus-erythematosus-sle/

Advanced Search

Your Favorites

You can save and print a list of your favorite abstracts during your browser session by clicking the “Favorite” button at the bottom of any abstract. View your favorites »

All abstracts accepted to ACR Convergence are under media embargo once the ACR has notified presenters of their abstract’s acceptance. They may be presented at other meetings or published as manuscripts after this time but should not be discussed in non-scholarly venues or outlets. The following embargo policies are strictly enforced by the ACR.

Accepted abstracts are made available to the public online in advance of the meeting and are published in a special online supplement of our scientific journal, Arthritis & Rheumatology. Information contained in those abstracts may not be released until the abstracts appear online. In an exception to the media embargo, academic institutions, private organizations, and companies with products whose value may be influenced by information contained in an abstract may issue a press release to coincide with the availability of an ACR abstract on the ACR website. However, the ACR continues to require that information that goes beyond that contained in the abstract (e.g., discussion of the abstract done as part of editorial news coverage) is under media embargo until 10:00 AM ET on November 14, 2024. Journalists with access to embargoed information cannot release articles or editorial news coverage before this time. Editorial news coverage is considered original articles/videos developed by employed journalists to report facts, commentary, and subject matter expert quotes in a narrative form using a variety of sources (e.g., research, announcements, press releases, events, etc.).

Violation of this policy may result in the abstract being withdrawn from the meeting and other measures deemed appropriate. Authors are responsible for notifying colleagues, institutions, communications firms, and all other stakeholders related to the development or promotion of the abstract about this policy. If you have questions about the ACR abstract embargo policy, please contact ACR abstracts staff at [email protected].

Wiley

  • Online Journal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Permissions Policies
  • Cookie Preferences

© Copyright 2025 American College of Rheumatology