0010 Functional Brain Connectivity Alterations in Restless Legs Syndrome are Modulated by Dopaminergic Medication

Abstract Introduction Functional brain connectivity studies revealed alterations within thalamic, salience, and default mode networks in patients with restless legs syndrome. The objective of this study was to characterize functional connectivity and network topology in a large cohort of patients with restless legs syndrome compared to healthy controls, and to investigate the modulatory effect of dopaminergic treatment upon connectivity. Methods 82 patients with restless legs syndrome (untreated, n=30; on dopaminergic medication, n=42; on alpha-2-delta ligands as mono- or polytherapy combined with dopaminergic medication, n=10) and 82 individually age and gender matched healthy controls were studied with resting state functional MRI. Connectivity of twelve resting-state networks was compared with independent component analysis, and among 410 brain regions with graph theoretical modeling. Results Patients with restless legs syndrome showed significantly higher connectivity within salience (P=0.029), executive (P=0.001), somatomotor (P=0.050), and cerebellar (P=0.041) networks, as well as significantly (P