Altered prefrontal brain activity in persons at risk for Alzheimer's disease: an fMRI study.
BACKGROUND
Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critical for adequate treatment and care. Recently it has been shown that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be important in preclinical detection of AD. The purpose of this study was to examine possible differences in memory-related brain activation between persons with high versus low risk for AD. This was achieved by combining a validated neurocognitive screening battery (the 7-minutes test) with memory assessment and fMRI.


METHODS
One hundred two healthy community-living persons with subjective memory complaints were recruited through advertisement and tested with the 7-minutes test. Based on their test performance they were classified as having either high (n = 8) or low risk (n = 94) for AD. Six high-risk individuals and six age-, sex-, and education-matched low-risk individuals were investigated with fMRI while engaged in episodic memory tasks.


RESULTS
The high-risk individuals performed worse than low-risk individuals on tests of episodic memory. Patterns of brain activity during episodic encoding and retrieval showed significant group differences (p < .05 corrected). During both encoding and retrieval, the low-risk persons showed increased activity relative to a baseline condition in prefrontal brain regions that previously have been implicated in episodic memory. By contrast, the high-risk persons did not significantly activate any prefrontal regions, but instead showed increased activity in visual occipito-temporal regions.


CONCLUSIONS
Patterns of prefrontal brain activity related to episodic memory differ between persons with high versus low risk for AD, and lowered prefrontal activity may predict subsequent disease.
Elgh
Eva
E
Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Geriatric Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden. eva.elgh@germed.umu.se
Larsson
Anne
A
Eriksson
Sture
S
Nyberg
Lars
L
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012306:Risk; D013548:Sweden