title: Reduced Activity in the Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus in ElderlyAPOE-E4 Carriers during a Verbal Fluency Task.
abstract: Apolipoprotein-E4 (APOE-E4) is a major genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). The verbal fluency task (VFT), especially the subtask category fluency, has shown to provide a good discrimination between cognitively normal controls and subjects with AD. Interestingly,APOE-E4 seems to have no effect on the behavioral performance during a VFT in healthy elderly. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to reveal possible compensation mechanisms by investigating the effect ofAPOE-E4 on the hemodynamic response in non-demented elderly during a VFT by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We compared performance and hemodynamic response of high riskAPOE-E4/E4, -E3/E4 carriers with neutralAPOE-E3/E3 non-demented subjects (N= 288; 70-77 years). No difference in performance was found.APOE-E4/E4, -E3/E4 carriers had a decreased hemodynamic response in the right inferior frontal junction (IFJ) with a corresponding higher response in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) during category fluency. Performance was correlated with the hemodynamic response in the MFG. We assume a compensation of decreased IFJ brain activation by utilizing the MFG during category fluency and thus resulting in no behavioral differences betweenAPOE-groups during the performance of a VFT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Katzorke
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia B M
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Zeller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Laura D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Polak
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reif
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deckert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Clinic Würzburg Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Herrmann
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; apolipoprotein-E4; elderly; near-infrared spectroscopy; verbal fluency task