Compensatory functional reorganization may precede hypertension-related brain damage and cognitive decline: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
Our study aimed at exploring structural and functional differences in the brain during higher cognitive processing between middle-aged hypertensive patients and controls matched for sex, age and years of education.



Two groups of 20 patients took part in MRI examinations. This article reports the results of functional MRI during a Stroop color interference task and structural evaluations based on a modified Fazekas scale.



No intergroup differences were found in regards to the severity of white matter lesions (Mann-Whitney U test = 150.5, P > 0.1), nor from the task performance in the scanner (t(35) = 0.2, P > 0.1). However, brain activation patterns between patients and controls varied. Hypertensive patients involved significantly more cerebral areas during the processing, regardless of the task difficulty. Differences were found in 26 diverse regions of both primary and associative cortices (with a peak voxel located in the cuneus, Z = 6.94, P < 0.05 family-wise error corrected at voxel level).



Our findings provide an insight into the brain mechanisms related to essential hypertension and suggest a functional reorganization (neuroplasticity) early in the course of the disease.
aInstitute of Psychology bInstitute of Experimental Physics, University of Gdansk c2nd Department of Radiology dDepartment of Hypertension and Diabetology eDepartment of Neurology of Adults, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland fDepartment of Cardiovascular Diseases, International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno (FNUSA), Brno, Czech Republic.
Patrycja
P
Naumczyk
Agnieszka
A
Sabisz
Marta
M
Witkowska
Beata
B
Graff
Krzysztof
K
Jodzio
Dariusz
D
Gąsecki
Edyta
E
Szurowska
Krzysztof
K
Narkiewicz
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests