Cerebellar Topological Alterations Across the Alzheimer's Disease Continuum
- 1Department of Neurology, Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Abstract
Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized as a network disconnection syndrome. Despite evidence implicating the cerebellum in cognitive network integration, its associated electrophysiological network topology dynamics across the AD continuum remain unexplored.
Methods: We enrolled 34 healthy controls (HC), 40 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 30 AD patients in this study. Cortical and cerebellar signals were recorded with a whole-brain EEG cap, and weighted functional connectivity networks were constructed using the phase-locking value (PLV). Graph theory was used to analyze network topological metrics across the AD continuum, focusing on cerebellar nodes. Topological metrics were correlated with neuropsychological scores, and network-based statistics (NBS) identified differential connectivity patterns among groups.
Results: Network changes were most prominent in the theta band, with additional alterations in the delta band. Both MCI and AD groups showed reduced small-world metrics, although small-world organization remained present. These groups also showed increased nodal centrality in the frontal, occipital and cerebellar regions (at CB1, CB2 and CBZ in MCI but only at CBZ in AD) but decreased in the central and temporal regions. NBS analysis identified selective theta-band reorganization of cerebello-cortical connectivity. An inverted U-shaped relationship was found between cerebellar nodal centrality and neuropsychological scale scores.
Conclusions: The cerebellar theta rhythm may be a key pattern involved in cognitive processing, and the topological changes of the cortical-cerebellar network may represent candidate electrophysiological network markers across different AD stages. These markers may reflect stage-related differences in cerebellar function, shifting from compensation in MCI to decompensation in AD.
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BibTeX
@article{zhang2026cerebellar,
title = {{Cerebellar Topological Alterations Across the Alzheimer's Disease Continuum}},
author = {Chi Zhang and Xiangyi Liu and Jiaxuan Fan and Wei Li and Jingping Shi and Minjie Tian},
journal = {Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.65801/pcp.3523},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13720842},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Cerebellar Topological Alterations Across the Alzheimer's Disease Continuum
AU - Chi Zhang
AU - Xiangyi Liu
AU - Jiaxuan Fan
AU - Wei Li
AU - Jingping Shi
AU - Minjie Tian
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/01
JO - Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology
DO - 10.65801/pcp.3523
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13720842
AB - Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized as a network disconnection syndrome. Despite evidence implicating the cerebellum in cognitive network integration, its associated electrophysiological network topology dynamics across the AD continuum remain unexplored. Methods: We enrolled 34 healthy controls (HC), 40 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 30 AD patients in this study. Cortical and cerebellar signals were recorded with a whole-brain EEG cap, and weighted functional connectivity networks were constructed using the phase-locking value (PLV). Graph theory was used to analyze network topological metrics across the AD continuum, focusing on cerebellar nodes. Topological metrics were correlated with neuropsychological scores, and network-based statistics (NBS) identified differential connectivity patterns among groups. Results: Network changes were most prominent in the theta band, with additional alterations in the delta band. Both MCI and AD groups showed reduced small-world metrics, although small-world organization remained present. These groups also showed increased nodal centrality in the frontal, occipital and cerebellar regions (at CB1, CB2 and CBZ in MCI but only at CBZ in AD) but decreased in the central and temporal regions. NBS analysis identified selective theta-band reorganization of cerebello-cortical connectivity. An inverted U-shaped relationship was found between cerebellar nodal centrality and neuropsychological scale scores. Conclusions: The cerebellar theta rhythm may be a key pattern involved in cognitive processing, and the topological changes of the cortical-cerebellar network may represent candidate electrophysiological network markers across different AD stages. These markers may reflect stage-related differences in cerebellar function, shifting from compensation in MCI to decompensation in AD.
SN - 2475-0581
ER -