Brain structural network topological alterations of the left prefrontal and limbic cortex in psychogenic erectile dysfunction

ABSTRACT

Aim: Despite increasing understanding of the cerebral functional changes and structural abnormalities in erectile dysfunction, alterations in the topological organization of brain networks underlying psychogenic erectile dysfunction remain unclear.

Materials and methods: Here, based on the diffusion tensor image data of 25 patients and 26 healthy controls, we investigated the topological organization of brain structural networks and its correlations with the clinical variables using the graph theoretical analysis.

Results: Patients displayed a preserved overall small-world organization and exhibited a less connectivity strength in the left inferior frontal gyrus, amygdale and the right inferior temporal gyrus. Moreover, an abnormal hub pattern was observed in patients, which might disturb the information interactions of the remaining brain network. Additionally, the clustering coefficient of the left hippocampus was positively correlated with the duration of patients and the normalized betweenness centrality of the right anterior cingulate gyrus and the left calcarine fissure were negatively correlated with the sum scores of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.

Conclusions: These findings suggested that the damaged white matter and the abnormal hub distribution of the left prefrontal and limbic cortex might contribute to the pathogenesis of psychogenic erectile dysfunction and provided new insights into the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of psychogenic erectile dysfunction.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychogenic erectile dysfunction
• diffusion tensor imaging
• graph theory
• brain structural networks
• network topology

Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the grants of: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81571430, 81701433), the Key Project of Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Health (No. ZKX16043), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 021414380134).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 81701433], [grant number 81571430]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 021414380134]; Key Project of Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Health [grant number ZKX16043].