Yadav Y, Elumalai P, Williams N, Jost J, Samal A. Discrete Ricci curvatures capture age-related changes in human brain functional connectivity networks.
Front Aging Neurosci 2023;
15:1120846. [PMID:
37293668 PMCID:
PMC10244515 DOI:
10.3389/fnagi.2023.1120846]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction
Geometry-inspired notions of discrete Ricci curvature have been successfully used as markers of disrupted brain connectivity in neuropsychiatric disorders, but their ability to characterize age-related changes in functional connectivity is unexplored.
Methods
We apply Forman-Ricci curvature and Ollivier-Ricci curvature to compare functional connectivity networks of healthy young and older subjects from the Max Planck Institute Leipzig Study for Mind-Body-Emotion Interactions (MPI-LEMON) dataset (N = 225).
Results
We found that both Forman-Ricci curvature and Ollivier-Ricci curvature can capture whole-brain and region-level age-related differences in functional connectivity. Meta-analysis decoding demonstrated that those brain regions with age-related curvature differences were associated with cognitive domains known to manifest age-related changes-movement, affective processing, and somatosensory processing. Moreover, the curvature values of some brain regions showing age-related differences exhibited correlations with behavioral scores of affective processing. Finally, we found an overlap between brain regions showing age-related curvature differences and those brain regions whose non-invasive stimulation resulted in improved movement performance in older adults.
Discussion
Our results suggest that both Forman-Ricci curvature and Ollivier-Ricci curvature correctly identify brain regions that are known to be functionally or clinically relevant. Our results add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating the sensitivity of discrete Ricci curvature measures to changes in the organization of functional connectivity networks, both in health and disease.
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