title: Hippocampal Amyloid Burden with Downstream Fusiform Gyrus Atrophy Correlate with Face Matching Task Scores in Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neuronal activity during face matching shows co-activation of the fusiform gyrus (FG) and areas along the ventral visual network. To elucidate the mechanisms related to the facial discrimination deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the study evaluates the relationships between β-amyloid (Aβ) load and gray matter (GM) atrophy within the ventral visual network.
  
  
  METHODS
  Comprehensive cognitive assessments and GM volumetry using 3-dimentional T1-weighted images and AV-45 positron emission tomography (PET) were studied in 44 patients with AD. We used AV-45 PET to measure regional Aβ to analyze the correlations between the regional neocortical AV-45 retention and atrophy in patients with AD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FG volume was positively correlated with the para-hippocampus (β = 0.565, P < 0.001), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC; β = 0.402, P < 0.001), and hippocampus volumes (β = 0.209, P = 0.044). After carefully confounded all possible factors simultaneously, the hippocampus standardized uptake value (SUV) ratio was independently associated with FG volume (β = -0.151, P = 0.017). Furthermore, volumes of the hippocampus (r = 0.473, P = 0.003), para-hippocampus (r = 0.515, P = 0.001), and FG (r = 0.383, P = 0.018) were associated with Benton's facial recognition test (BFRT).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In conclusion, our study indicated that amyloid burden within the hippocampus might contribute to FG cortical hub GM atrophy. While the face matching task scores were related to the FG, hippocampus, and para-hippocampus volumes, concordant changes of the aforementioned three structures suggested the importance of the three ventral visual network hubs in AD.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ya-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Nai-Ching
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine and Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging and Translation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kun-Ju
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Neng
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shih-Wei
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Che-Wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Science Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsiu-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chiung-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
keywords: AV-45 PET; Alzheimer’s disease; amyloid; fusiform gyrus; gray matter volumetry; visual network