Neural basis for verb processing in Alzheimer's disease: an fMRI study.
Patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) have difficulty understanding verbs. To investigate the neural basis for this deficit, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine patterns of neural activation during verb processing in 11 AD patients compared with 16 healthy seniors. Subjects judged the pleasantness of verbs, including MOTION verbs and COGNITION verbs. Healthy seniors and AD patients both activated posterolateral temporal and inferior frontal regions during judgments of verbs. These activations were relatively reduced and somewhat changed in their anatomic distribution in AD patients compared with healthy seniors, particularly for the subcategory of MOTION verbs, but AD patients showed minimal activation in association with COGNITION verbs. These findings imply that poor performance with verbs in AD is due in part to altered activation of the large-scale neural network that supports verb processing.
Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USA. mgrossma@mail.med.upenn.edu
Murray
M
Grossman
Phyllis
P
Koenig
Chris
C
DeVita
Guila
G
Glosser
Peachie
P
Moore
Jim
J
Gee
John
J
Detre
David
D
Alsop
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011999:Recruitment, Neurophysiological / Q000502:physiology