Disruptions of morphological brain networks and their associations with multi-symptoms in children with spastic cerebral palsy.

Background: Spastic cerebral palsy (SCP) is associated with extensive alterations in regional cortical morphology. However, the specific effects of SCP on the topological organization of morphological brain networks remain largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate these effects and explore their potential correlations with clinical manifestations in SCP children. Methods: Structural magnetic resonance imaging and clinical data were collected from 31 children with SCP and 29 sex- and age-matched children with typical development. Single-subject morphological brain networks were constructed separately based on four different morphological indices [i.e., the cortical thickness (CT), fractal dimension, gyrification index, and sulcus depth], which were further characterized using graph-based network approaches. Permutation tests were used to examine between-group differences in regional morphology, interregional morphological connectivity (MC), and graph-based network properties. For magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based features showing significant between-group differences, Spearman partial correlations were used to examine their relationships with the clinical variables in the patients. Results: Compared with the control group, the SCP group only showed alterations in the CT-based morphological brain networks. Specifically, the SCP group displayed an increased characteristic path length (t=3.909, P=4.0×10 Conclusions: SCP is associated with abnormal morphological brain network topology, which may contribute to disturbances in motor and cognition in patients.