Chronic diseases, defined broadly as conditions that persist over 6 months and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living, are becoming increasingly common and seriously affect people’s daily lives. However, the underlying relationship between chronic diseases and brain function has not been well studied.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an important neuroimaging technique used to detect changes associated with cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation, which can help us address the characteristic functional changes in brain network properties. With the application of fMRI, we could explore the potential functional cerebral alterations related to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, sleep disorders, and age-related macular degeneration. This could aid in forming a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of physiology and pathology in chronic diseases from a novel perspective which may prove helpful for early diagnosis and better treatment.

This Special Issue aims to provide an improved understanding of the effects of chronic diseases using neuroimaging methods, in the hope that this will be helpful for a better understanding of how chronic diseases affect the brain, facilitating early diagnosis and treatment, as well as clarifying neuropathological mechanisms.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Diabetes and resting-state fMRI methods such as functional connectivity (FC), regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), and voxel-wise degree centrality (DC)
• Diabetic retinopathy and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Diabetic neuropathy and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Age-related macular degeneration and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Dry eye and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Insomnia and other sleep disorders and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Cancer and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Obesity and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC
• Arthritis and FC, ReHo, ALFF, or DC