Do cognitive patterns of brain magnetic activity correlate with hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer's disease?
BACKGROUND
Many reports support the clinical validity of volumetric MRI measurements in Alzheimer's disease.


OBJECTIVE
To integrate functional brain imaging data derived from magnetoencephalography (MEG) and volumetric data in patients with Alzheimer's disease and in age matched controls.


METHODS
MEG data were obtained in the context of a probe-letter memory task. Volumetric measurements were obtained for lateral and mesial temporal lobe regions.


RESULTS
As expected, Alzheimer's disease patients showed greater hippocampal atrophy than controls bilaterally. MEG derived indices of the degree of activation in left parietal and temporal lobe areas, occurring after 400 ms from stimulus onset, correlated significantly with the relative volume of lateral and mesial temporal regions. In addition, the size of the right hippocampus accounted for a significant portion of the variance in cognitive scores independently of brain activity measures.


CONCLUSIONS
These data support the view that there is a relation between hippocampal atrophy and the degree of neurophysiological activity in the left temporal lobe.
Maestú
F
F
Centro de Magnetoencefalografía Dr Pérez Modrego, Universidad Complutense Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Arrazola
J
J
Fernández
A
A
Simos
P G
PG
Amo
C
C
Gil-Gregorio
P
P
Fernandez
S
S
Papanicolaou
A
A
Ortiz
T
T
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001284:Atrophy; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology