Effects of height and growth hormone on the connectivity patterns of resting-state networks in children with GHD

Jurong Ding; Zhiyuan Xu; Pan Yang; Meiling Ding; Bo Hua; Jie Yin; Mei Wang; Xin Chen; Zhongxiang Ding

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2025.06.058

Effects of height and growth hormone on the connectivity patterns of resting-state networks in children with GHD

Neuroscience. 2025 Jun 27:580:325-331. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2025.06.058. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jurong Ding¹, Zhiyuan Xu², Pan Yang², Meiling Ding², Bo Hua², Jie Yin², Mei Wang³, Xin Chen⁴, Zhongxiang Ding³

Affiliations

¹ School of Automation and Information Engineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China; Intelligent Perception and Control Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China. Electronic address: jurongding@gmail.com.
² School of Automation and Information Engineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China; Intelligent Perception and Control Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China.
³ Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Westlake University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Zigong First People Hospital, Zigong, China.

PMID: 40582494
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2025.06.058

Abstract

Growth hormone deficiency (GHD) can lead to short stature in children and affect brain development, influencing cognition and behavior. Short stature can affect children's emotional health and motor performance to some extent. Given the role of resting-state networks (RSNs) in maintaining cognitive and behavioral functions, this study investigated the distinct effects of height and GH on RSNs in GHD children by analyzing the changes in functional connectivity patterns of RSNs. We enrolled 31 GHD children, 11 idiopathic short stature (ISS) children, and 15 healthy controls (HC) to assess alterations in functional connectivity patterns of default mode network (DMN), dorsal attention network (DAN), frontal-parietal control network (FPCN), auditory network (AN), sensory motor network (SMN) and visual network (VN). At the nodal integration level, compared with HC, GHD exhibited alterations in FPCN, SMN and VN, while compared with ISS, alterations were in DMN and VN. At the network level, compared with HC, GHD exhibited decreased inter-network connectivity in FPCN-SMN, increased inter-network connectivity in SMN-VN, and reduced intra-network connectivity in AN and VN. Compared with ISS, GHD showed decreased inter-network connectivity in FPCN-DAN and SMN-AN. These results suggest that the synergistic effect of height and GH may affect the motor control function of GHD children by modulating FPCN-SMN and SMN-VN. The independent effect of GH may affect the attention of GHD children by regulating FPCN-DAN, and participate in maintaining the SMN-AN sensory integration pathway. These results could offer new insights into the neural mechanisms of cognitive and behavioral dysfunction in GHD children.

Keywords: Functional connectivity; Growth hormone; Growth hormone deficiency; Height; Resting state network.