title: Brain networks in posterior cortical atrophy: a single case tractography study and literature review.
abstract: Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is rare neurodegenerative dementia, clinically characterized by a progressive decline in higher-visual object and space processing. After a brief review of the literature on the neuroimaging in PCA, here we present a study of the brain structural connectivity in a patient with PCA and progressive isolated visual and visuo-motor signs. Clinical and cognitive data were acquired in a 58-years-old patient (woman, right-handed, disease duration 18 months). Brain structural and diffusion tensor (DT) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were obtained. A voxel-based morphometry (VBM) study was performed to explore the pattern of gray matter (GM) atrophy, and a fully automatic segmentation was assessed to obtain the hippocampal volumes. DT MRI-based tractography was used to assess the integrity of long-range white matter (WM) pathways in the patient and in six sex- and age-matched healthy subjects. This PCA patient had a clinical syndrome characterized by left visual neglect, optic ataxia, and left limb apraxia, as well as mild visuo-spatial episodic memory impairment. VBM study showed bilateral posterior GM atrophy with right predominance; DT MRI tractography demonstrated WM damage to the right hemisphere only, including the superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, as compared to age-matched controls. The homologous left-hemisphere tracts were spared. No difference was found between left and right hippocampal volumes. These data suggest that selective visuo-spatial deficits typical of PCA might not result from cortical damage alone, but by a right-lateralized network-level dysfunction including WM damage along the major visual pathways.
authors.affiliation: Inserm-UPMC UMRS 975, CR-ICM, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Migliaccio
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Agosta
authors.forename: Monica N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Toba
authors.forename: Dalila
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Samri
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corlier
authors.forename: Leonardo C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chupin
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharman
authors.forename: Maria L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gorno-Tempini
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filippi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bartolomeo
mesh_terms: D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology*
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