Mite Mijalkov (Sweden)
Karolinska Institutet
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Clinical geriatrics
I am a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Joana Pereira at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institute in Sweden. I obtained my Ph.D. in Materials Science and Nanotechnology from Bilkent University, Turkey, studying the emergent collective behaviors from the interaction of autonomous mobile individuals. Currently, I use complex networks as a tool to model the complex brain connectivity patterns that arise due to the interaction between distributed brain regions. The goal of my studies is to design more efficient and sensitive methods to understand the alterations of these complex brain networks in individuals with neurodegenerative disorders. Ultimately, the developed methods can have immense value as prognostic markers, e.g. to achieve earlier and more accurate diagnosis, identify patients with worse prognosis or assess the effects of treatment on brain connectivity.

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 Conference Calendar

SEX DIFFERENCES IN FUNCTIONAL BRAIN CONNECTIVITY OVER THE COURSE OF AGING IN A LARGE COHORT

Session Name
1990 - SEX AND GENDER IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES (ID 103)
Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
Sun, 20.03.2022
Session Time
11:35 AM - 01:35 PM
Room
ONSITE: 113
Lecture Time
12:20 PM - 12:35 PM
Presenter

Abstract

Aims

The brain is a complex network that relies on the interaction between its various regions. Although studies have shown that this network undergoes complex changes with aging, scarcely any assessed how they were affected by sex, partly owing to small sample sizes. Here, we aim to address this limitation by assessing functional connectivity (FC) changes in large cohort using novel multilayer brain connectivity approaches.

Methods

We analyzed the resting-state FC data from 37365 individuals of the UK Biobank cohort (17484 men; 19881 women; aged 47-79 years). For each individual, we built two FC networks consisting of the positive and negative temporal correlations between 21 nodes, each corresponding to resting-state functional network (Fig.1a-b). The networks were integrated into a two-layer multilayer network by connecting nodes with their replicas in adjacent layers (Fig.1c). We characterized their topology by calculating several measures using the BRAPH 2.0 software.fig1.jpg

Results

The number of negative connections decreased as a function of age in both sexes. Younger men had stronger negative connectivity compared to women (p<0.001); both sexes had similar functional connectivity at older ages. The single-layer clustering coefficient showed no differences between sexes, while global efficiency was higher in men (p<0.001). In the multilayer networks, men showed higher participation coefficient (p<0.001), which decreased with age.

Conclusions

These findings provide a deeper insight into the sex differences that occur in functional connectivity over the course of aging. They indicate that multilayer networks provide a natural way to integrate the information from positive and negative functional connections.

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