Frontoparietal functional connectivity is related to active disease and processing speed in adolescents with childhood-onset lupus
Authors' conclusion
Adolescents with cSLE, compared to HCs, exhibited lower brain FC in frontoparietal regions of the dorsal attention and somatosensory regions, which was associated with greater disease activity.
Study context
- Population
- Adolescents aged 11 to 17 years with childhood-onset SLE and age- and sex-matched healthy controls
- Participants
- 60 vs 59
- Exposure
- Childhood-onset SLE vs age- and sex-matched healthy controls
- cSLEn = 60
- Healthy controls (HCs)n = 59reference
- Outcome
- Brain functional connectivity (rs-fMRI) between regions of interest within/across resting-state networks
Methodological detailsage- and sex-matched healthy controls, resting-state fMRI at 3T, age-adjusted general linear models, family-wise error (FWE) correction for multiple comparisons
- Age- and sex-matched healthy controls
- Resting-state fMRI at 3T
- Age-adjusted general linear models
- FWE correction for multiple comparisons
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Brain functional connectivity, cSLE vs HCs
- Lower functional connectivity (FC) in frontoparietal connections in cSLE vs HCs, exacerbated in subgroups with active cSLE features (all P-FWE ≤ .049)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
FC and disease characteristics in cSLE
- Lower FC in frontocerebellar connections associated with higher cumulative disease activity and GC use (P-FWE ≤ .018)
FC and processing speed
- Positive association between FC in frontoparietal-occipital connections and processing speed scores in cSLE (P-FWE = .010), not in HCs
Original publication
Frontoparietal functional connectivity is related to active disease and processing speed in adolescents with childhood-onset lupus. Ann Rheum Dis. Published 16 July 2025. doi:10.
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