Aberrant hippocampal intrinsic morphological connectivity patterns in Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder with cognitive impairment: Insights from an individual-based morphological brain network

•Cognitively impaired NMOSD patients show altered hippocampal connectivity patterns.•Abnormalities in hippocampal intrinsic network metrics in NMOSD are concentrated in the hippocampal tail and CA1-body.•Hippocampal network metrics in NMOSD correlate with cognitive impairment. Although several clinical studies have demonstrated that hippocampus volume loss in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) may be a significant predictor of cognition, no consensus has been reached. To investigate the alterations of the intrinsic ,hippocampal morphological networks in cognitively impaired NMOSD patients and their correlations with cognitive performance. 38 NMOSD patients and 39 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. NMOSD patients were categorized into two groups based on neuropsychological assessment, including the cognitively impaired (CI) group (n = 21) and the cognitively preserved (CP) group (n = 17). Brain high-resolution 3D-T1WI MR images were evaluated, and individual-based intrinsic hippocampus morphological networks were constructed. The between-group differences in global and nodal network topology profiles were estimated, and correlations between the nodal network metrics and cognitive scores were further analyzed. Compared to the HC and CP groups, the CI group shows significant differences in nodal network metrics of the left hippocampal tail and left hippocampal cornu ammonis (CA) 1-body. Nodal network metrics of the left hippocampal tail were significantly correlated with neurocognitive scores across the entire NMOSD group. NMOSD patients with cognitive impairment exhibit abnormal intrinsic hippocampal morphological networks. Nodal network property measurements can help identify those with cognitive impairment.