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• Clinical Article •
Multimodal MRI combined with canonical correlation analysis reveals the coupling relationship between brain functional abnormalities and clinical symptoms in parents who have lost their only child
MAO Yuhong  LUO Yifeng  CAO Zhihong  LI Yuefeng  GE Jiyuan  LAN Qingyue  QI Rongfeng  WU Luo'an  ZHANG Li  LU Guangming 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.001.


[Abstract] Objective To investigate the abnormal patterns of brain structure, function, and network in parents who have lost their only child (shidu parents), and to reveal the overall coupling relationship between these abnormalities and clinical symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Materials and Methods A total of 47 shidu parents (SD) and 36 healthy controls (HC) were included. Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data and clinical symptom ratings were collected from all participants. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM), resting-state functional analysis, and graph-theoretical network analysis were conducted. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was further applied to examine the global relationship between multimodal neuroimaging indicators and clinical symptom sets.Results Compared with the HC group, the SD group showed reduced gray matter volume in brain regions including the left hippocampus, bilateral insula, and left medial and paracingulate gyri (P < 0.05, FDR corrected), along with functional abnormalities such as decreased degree centrality in the left temporal lobe (P < 0.05, FDR corrected) and increased regional homogeneity in the right middle temporal gyrus (P < 0.05, FDR corrected). The topological properties of the brain network were also altered in the SD group (P < 0.05, FDR corrected). CCA results demonstrated a significant overall coupling between neuroimaging features and clinical symptoms (canonical correlation coefficient of the first pair: r = 0.890, P < 0.001). Among the imaging indicators, network properties contributed the most (loading r = -0.998) and were most strongly associated with PTSD symptoms (cross-loading r = -0.882).Conclusions Shidu parents exhibit widespread brain alterations, with abnormal brain network topology serving as a core neuroimaging feature strongly linked to PTSD and other clinical symptoms. These findings suggest that brain network reorganization may represent a key neural substrate underlying psychological symptoms in this population.
[Keywords] post-traumatic stress symptoms；parents who have lost their only child；magnetic resonance imaging；multimodal magnetic resonance imaging；brain network analysis；canonical correlation analysis

MAO Yuhong1   LUO Yifeng1*   CAO Zhihong1   LI Yuefeng1   GE Jiyuan1   LAN Qingyue1   QI Rongfeng2   WU Luo'an3   ZHANG Li4   LU Guangming5  

1 Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Yixing Hospital of Jiangsu University, Wuxi 214200, China

2 Department of Medical Imaging, Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China

3 Yixing Mental Health Center, Wuxi 214200, China

4 National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorder (the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University), Changsha 410011, China

5 Department of Medical Imaging, General Hospital of Eastern Theater Command, Nanjing 210002, China

Corresponding author: LUO Y F, E-mail: luoyifeng1207@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-09-22
Accepted  2025-11-29
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.001
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.001.

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