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• Clinical Article •
Correlation between brain functional network alterations and cognitive function in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus
YANG Xueni  HE Yangqing  ZHANG Yujie  ZHAO Lianping  TIAN Limin 

Cite this article as YANG X N, HE Y Q, ZHANG Y J, et al. Correlation between brain functional network alterations and cognitive function in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2026, 17(6): 11-17. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.06.002.


[Abstract] Objective This study aimed to characterize the alterations of resting-state brain functional networks in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and to explore their associations with cognitive performance and clinical blood indicators.Materials and Methods This was a prospective cross-sectional study. A total of 43 T1DM patients and 52 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled between March 2023 and March 2025. Resting-state functional MRI data were acquired, and graph-theory-based methods were used to construct whole-brain functional networks. Using age, sex, years of education, and mean frame displacement as covariates, two-sample t-tests were performed to compare group differences in network topological properties. Furthermore, partial Pearson/Spearman correlation analyses were conducted to assess the correlations between network metrics and cognitive scores as well as clinical blood indicators.Results Compared with HCs, T1DM patients showed declines in overall cognitive performance and specific cognitive subdomains (P < 0.05). Regarding global topological properties, the patients' brain functional networks retained a small-world property; however, global integration efficiency was significantly decreased and characteristic path length was significantly prolonged. Meanwhile, local information processing capacity was significantly enhanced (P < 0.05). At the nodal level, the right superior temporal pole exhibited significantly increased nodal clustering coefficient and nodal local efficiency (Bonferroni-corrected P < 0.05). Partial correlation analyses revealed that characteristic path length was negatively correlated with naming scores (r = -0.395, P = 0.012)and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level (r = -0.337, P = 0.033); normalized characteristic path length was negatively correlated with naming scores (r = -0.329, P = 0.038) and HDL-C level (r = -0.378, P = 0.016); global efficiency was positively correlated with HDL-C level (r = 0.376, P = 0.017); and the nodal clustering coefficient of the right superior temporal pole was negatively correlated with HDL-C level (r = -0.317, P = 0.046). After FDR correction, none of the above correlation results remained statistically significant, suggesting potential associations that should be interpreted with caution.Conclusions T1DM patients exhibit significant reorganization of brain functional networks, characterized by decreased global efficiency and increased local efficiency, which are associated with specific cognitive impairments and lipid metabolism levels. These findings provide new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction in T1DM and its comprehensive clinical management.
[Keywords] type 1 diabetes mellitus；magnetic resonance imaging；cognitive function；resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging；brain functional network；graph theory analysis

YANG Xueni1, 2   HE Yangqing1   ZHANG Yujie1, 2   ZHAO Lianping3   TIAN Limin4*  

1 The First Clinical Medical College of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou 730000, China

2 Department of Endocrinology, Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou 730000, China

3 Department of Radiology, Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou 730000, China

4 Department of Endocrinology, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610072, China

Corresponding author: TIAN L M, E-mail: tlm6666@sina.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2026-02-13
Accepted  2026-06-01
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.06.002
Cite this article as YANG X N, HE Y Q, ZHANG Y J, et al. Correlation between brain functional network alterations and cognitive function in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2026, 17(6): 11-17. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.06.002.

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