title: Neural correlates of cognitive dysfunction in Lewy body diseases and tauopathies: combined assessment with FDG-PET and the CERAD test battery.
abstract: We investigated disease-specific cognitive profiles and their neural correlates in Lewy-body diseases (LBD) and tauopathies by CERAD assessment and FDG-PET. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between reduced semantic fluency in tauopathies and impaired verbal learning in LBD. Semantic fluency discriminated between groups with high accuracy (83%). Compared to LBD, tauopathy patients showed bilateral hypometabolism of midbrain, thalamus, middle cingulate gyrus and supplementary motor/premotor cortex. In the reverse contrast, LBD patients exhibited bilateral hypometabolism in posterior parietal cortex, precuneus and inferior temporal gyrus extending into occipital and frontal cortices. In diagnosis-independent voxel-based analyses, verbal learning/memory correlated with left temporal and right parietal metabolism, while fluency was coupled to bilateral striatal and frontal metabolism. Naming correlated with left frontal metabolism and drawing with metabolism in bilateral temporal and left frontal regions. In line with disease-specific patterns of regional glucose metabolism, tauopathies and LBD show distinct cognitive profiles, which may assist clinical differentiation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: sabine.hellwig@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hellwig
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frings
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bormann
authors.forename: Annabelle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kreft
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Amtage
authors.forename: Timo S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Spehl
authors.forename: Cornelius
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weiller
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tüscher
authors.forename: Philipp T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012660:Semantics; D024801:Tauopathies / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
keywords: Cognition; Parkinsonism; Positron emission tomography; Tauopathies