Frontal lobe tasks do not reflect frontal lobe function in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease.
Thirty-one patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria were psychometrically tested with various frontal lobe tasks. The results were correlated with regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCMRG1) as measured by positron emission tomography of 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose. RCMRG1 of frontal functional-anatomically defined regions was not linked to the performance seen in frontal lobe testing. The majority of the frontal lobe tasks showed a high correlation to severity of dementia that was related to rCMRG1 of the temporo-parietal cortex. There were high intercorrelations of frontal lobe test scores to other tests. Thus, these tasks seem to measure nonspecific cognitive changes in AD patients.
Kessler
J
J
Max-Planck-lnstitut für Neurologische Forschung, Köln, Germany.
Mielke
R
R
Grond
M
M
Herholz
K
K
Heiss
W D
WD
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005947:Glucose