title: A positron emission tomography study of frontal lobe function (verbal fluency) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to investigate the location of cerebral cortical and subcortical abnormalities in non-demented patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Involvement of the frontal lobes was investigated with a task of executive frontal lobe function (verbal fluency/word generation), using a PET activation paradigm. Two groups of ALS patients defined by the presence or absence of cognitive impairment were tested. ALS patients who had cognitive impairments showed a region of cortical and subcortical dysfunction which extended across a wide area of the frontal lobes, and included the insular cortex and thalamic nuclear complex. These findings support the notion that extra-motor involvement is relatively common in ALS and broadens concepts of selective vulnerability in ALS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abrahams
authors.forename: P N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Leigh
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kew
authors.forename: L H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Brooks
mesh_terms: D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*