Effective Connectivity and Clinical Correlates in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
5 affiliations
- 1Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, Graduate School of Biomedical Science & Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
- 3Department of Physiology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- 4Department of Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- 5Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Guri, Korea.
Abstract
Background
Cognitive impairment is a substantial comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, the neural mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess alterations in effective connectivity (EC) in patients with COPD and investigate their relationships with clinical measures.Methods
Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) was performed in 38 patients with COPD and 30 healthy controls. EC was estimated using vector autoregressive (VAR) modelling combined with Granger causality analysis across 26 prespecified brain regions of interest derived from our previous functional connectivity study of the same cohort. Between-group differences in directed connectivity were assessed using Welch's t-tests. Associations between EC measures showing between-group differences and clinical measures were evaluated using age-adjusted partial Pearson correlations.Results
At the nominal two-sided p < 0.05 level, 37 directed connections showed between-group differences in effective connectivity, and the mean vector autoregressive coefficients for 35 of these connections lay on opposite sides of zero between the COPD and control groups. Among the connections showing between-group differences, age-adjusted associations in patients with COPD involved pulmonary function, systemic oxygenation, cognition, affect, and health status. These associations involved distributed cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar regions, with several directed connections showing convergence across multiple clinical domains.Conclusion
Resting-state VAR-based EC revealed distributed between-group differences in direction-sensitive BOLD temporal organization in COPD. Several of these EC measures were associated with pulmonary function, SpO₂, respiratory and COPD symptom burden, cognition, affect, and health status after age adjustment. These findings extend the functional connectivity profile of COPD by linking directed temporal relationships to its multidimensional clinical burden.
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BibTeX
@article{han2026effective,
title = {{Effective Connectivity and Clinical Correlates in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.}},
author = {Kyung-Il Han and Jin Ho Bae and Hang Joon Jo and Jae Min Park and Yoomi Yeo and Tai Sun Park and Dong Woo Park and Tae-Hyung Kim},
journal = {International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.2147/copd.s634467},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898870},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Effective Connectivity and Clinical Correlates in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
AU - Kyung-Il Han
AU - Jin Ho Bae
AU - Hang Joon Jo
AU - Jae Min Park
AU - Yoomi Yeo
AU - Tai Sun Park
AU - Dong Woo Park
AU - Tae-Hyung Kim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
DO - 10.2147/copd.s634467
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898870
AB - Background Cognitive impairment is a substantial comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, the neural mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. This study aimed to assess alterations in effective connectivity (EC) in patients with COPD and investigate their relationships with clinical measures.Methods Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) was performed in 38 patients with COPD and 30 healthy controls. EC was estimated using vector autoregressive (VAR) modelling combined with Granger causality analysis across 26 prespecified brain regions of interest derived from our previous functional connectivity study of the same cohort. Between-group differences in directed connectivity were assessed using Welch's t-tests. Associations between EC measures showing between-group differences and clinical measures were evaluated using age-adjusted partial Pearson correlations.Results At the nominal two-sided p < 0.05 level, 37 directed connections showed between-group differences in effective connectivity, and the mean vector autoregressive coefficients for 35 of these connections lay on opposite sides of zero between the COPD and control groups. Among the connections showing between-group differences, age-adjusted associations in patients with COPD involved pulmonary function, systemic oxygenation, cognition, affect, and health status. These associations involved distributed cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar regions, with several directed connections showing convergence across multiple clinical domains.Conclusion Resting-state VAR-based EC revealed distributed between-group differences in direction-sensitive BOLD temporal organization in COPD. Several of these EC measures were associated with pulmonary function, SpO₂, respiratory and COPD symptom burden, cognition, affect, and health status after age adjustment. These findings extend the functional connectivity profile of COPD by linking directed temporal relationships to its multidimensional clinical burden.
SN - 1176-9106
SN - 1178-2005
ER -