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IC‐P3‐182: Neural correlates of long‐term declarative memories reveal age‐dependent differences
Author(s) -
Holthoff Vjera A.,
Donix Markus,
Poettrich Katrin,
Weiss Peter,
Fink Gereon,
Kummer Ruediger
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.126
Subject(s) - autobiographical memory , episodic memory , semantic memory , recall , psychology , declarative memory , context (archaeology) , neural correlates of consciousness , long term memory , cognitive psychology , retrospective memory , childhood memory , developmental psychology , cognition , neuroscience , history , archaeology
labeled perfusion MRI (ASL-pMRI) and a neuropsychological test battery that included the Mini-mental State Examination, verbal fluency, and memory testing. MRI was performed on a 3 Tesla whole body scanner using the head coil. ASL was performed using flow driven adiabatic inversion and an improved version of a previously published method for subtracting off-resonance saturation effects. The blood flow images were spatially normalized and group comparisons performed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM2). Results: With a threshold of p 0.0.5 uncorrected for multiple comparisons, significant differences in rCBF were found for both the DLB and AD groups in frontal and parieto-occipital cortex. However, the magnitude in reduction in blood flow was significantly more pronounced in the DLB group compared to the AD group, despite a milder degree of cognitive impairment amongst the subjects with DLB. Conclusions: The regional pattern of decreased rCBF measured with ASL may have limited specificity for separating mild DLB from mild AD. Clinically, patients with DLB have been observed to exhibit dramatic clinical response to treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors, and a more severe cholinergic deficit is known to be present in DLB relative to AD. The hypoperfusion in association areas detected by ASL-pMRI in DLB may therefore be associated with decreased cholinergic function.