Structural correlates of apathy in Alzheimer's disease.
BACKGROUND
Apathy is the most common noncognitive symptom in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The structural correlates of apathy in AD have not yet been described.


METHODS
We analyzed magnetic resonance imaging data of 35 AD patients with and without apathy.


RESULTS
There was a significant linear association between apathy severity and cortical gray matter atrophy in the bilateral anterior cingulate [Brodmann area (BA) 24; r = 0.39-0.42, p = 0.01] and left medial frontal cortex (BA 8 and 9; r = 0.4, p < 0.02). Left mean cingulate cortical thinning predicted the presence/absence of apathy at the trend level of significance.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrates a strong association between apathy and the integrity of medial frontal regions in AD.
Apostolova
Liana G
LG
Department of Neurology, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA. lapostolova@mednet.ucla.edu
Akopyan
Gohar G
GG
Partiali
Negar
N
Steiner
Calen A
CA
Dutton
Rebecca A
RA
Hayashi
Kiralee M
KM
Dinov
Ivo D
ID
Toga
Arthur W
AW
Cummings
Jeffrey L
JL
Thompson
Paul M
PM
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001284:Atrophy; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D012016:Reference Values; D013223:Statistics as Topic