Cerebral metabolic and cognitive studies in dementia with frontal lobe behavioral features.
Three subjects with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) with frontal lobe features of behavioral disinhibition were studied using positron emission tomography with [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18 FDG) and standardized neuropsychological tests. The three subjects showed significant decrements (p less than .05) in relative glucose metabolism (regional/mean gray metabolism) in the orbitofrontal, prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions when compared to healthy controls. Severity-matched subjects with DAT without the associated frontal lobe features did not show the relative reductions in glucose metabolism in these regions when compared to controls. However, on neuropsychological testing of frontal lobe cognitive functions the three subjects did not show decrements that were more severe than those shown by severity-matched DAT patients without the behavioral features. These data demonstrate physiologic dysfunction in specific cortical regions in subjects with behavioral aberrations attributed to these regions and an apparent dissociation between behavioral and cognitive functions of the frontal lobe.
Kumar
A
A
Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Maryland.
Schapiro
M B
MB
Haxby
J V
JV
Grady
C L
CL
Friedland
R P
RP
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000523:psychology; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D001786:Blood Glucose; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D003847:Deoxyglucose