Gender-Specific Brain Morphological and Network Differences in Parkinson's Disease Patients with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder

Motivation: The influence of gender on the brain morphology of PD-RBD patients remains unclear. Goal(s): We aimed to investigate gender differences in PD-RBD patients in terms of cortical morphology and individual structural covariance network. Approach: We firstly conducted volume- and surface-based morphometry analyses, followed by further exploration of the topological characteristics of individual level morphological similarity networks based on Kullback-Leibler Divergence. Results: Male patients presented decreased cortical indicators in salience, along with increased volume, cortical complexity and sulcus depth increase. Furthermore, in the individual morphological networks, we found significant differences between male and female patients in terms of both global and nodal properties. Impact: PD-RBD patients exhibit significantly gender-specific differences in brain morphology and covariant patterns, which may reflect distinct clinical treatment needs and disease progression patterns. Further exploration is needed to enhance clinical management efficiency.