Altered and evolution of the static and dynamic spontaneous brain activity in patients with Spinocerebellar ataxia type3

Motivation: Morphologically, spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) patients have extensive brain injuries. However, the alterations of local brain activity in pre- and symptomatic SCA3 patients remain unknown. Goal(s): This study aimed to investigate the abnormal local brain activity of SCA3 by using the static and dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (sALFF and dALFF)/regional homogeneity (sReHo and dReHo) analysis. Approach: Static and dynamic (s/d) ALFF/ReHo were adopted to estimate the alterations of local brain activity among the three groups. Results: Decreased static and dynamic spontaneous brain activity was observed in patients with SCA3, and abnormal ALFF appeared at the pre-symptomatic stage. Impact: Compared with HCs, SCA3 patients exhibit an abnormal and persistent deterioration of spontaneous brain activity as the disease progresses, which highlighted that damaged brain activity might be the potential imaging marker for monitoring SCA3.