1. Brain changes within the visuo-spatial attentional network in posterior cortical atrophy
- Author
-
Chiara Cerami1 2, Chiara Crespi 1, Pasquale Anthony Della Rosa 1, 3, Alessandra Dodich 1, Alessandra Marcone 2, Giuseppe Magnani 4, Elisabetta Coppi 4, Andrea Falini 1, 5, Stefano F. Cappa 1, 2, Daniela Perani1 3, 6, Cerami, C, Crespi, C, Della Rosa, Pa, Dodich, A, Marcone, A, Magnani, G, Coppi, E, Falini, Andrea, Cappa, STEFANO FRANCESCO, and Perani, DANIELA FELICITA L.
- Subjects
Male ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Frontal Eye Field ,0302 clinical medicine ,Dementia diagnosis ,Cortex (anatomy) ,Medicine ,Cerebral Cortex ,0303 health sciences ,General Neuroscience ,Superior longitudinal fasciculus ,Neurodegenerative Diseases ,General Medicine ,Frontal eye fields ,Middle Aged ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Diffusion Tensor Imaging ,Frontal lobe ,Female ,Radiology ,[18F]FDG-PET Imaging ,medicine.medical_specialty ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Perceptual Disorders ,03 medical and health sciences ,Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 ,Fractional anisotropy ,Humans ,030304 developmental biology ,Aged ,business.industry ,Posterior cortical atrophy ,Voxel-based morphometry ,Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ,Positron-Emission Tomography ,Space Perception ,Posterior Cortical Atrophy ,Dementia ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,Atrophy ,business ,Mental Status Schedule ,Neuroscience ,Voxel-Based Morphometry ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Photic Stimulation ,Diffusion MRI - Abstract
Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is characterized by basic visual and high order visual-spatial dysfunctions. In this study, we investigated long-distance deafferentation processes within the frontal-parietal-occipital network in ten PCA patients using a MRI-PET combined approach. Objective voxel-based [18F]FDG-PET imaging measured metabolic changes in single patients. Comprehensive investigation of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) metrics and grey-matter density with Voxel-based Morphometry (VBM) were obtained in a subgroup of 6 patients. Fractional anisotropy (FA) in the superior longitudinal fasciculus correlated with the PET metabolic changes within the inferior parietal and frontal eye field regions. [18F]FDG-PETanalysis showed in each PCA case the typical bilateral hypometabolic pattern, involving posterior temporal, parietal, and occipital cortex, with additional hypometabolic foci in the frontal eye fields. VBM showed right-sided atrophy in the parieto-occipital cortex, as well as a limited temporal involvement. DTI revealed extensive degeneration of the major anterior-posterior connecting fiber bundles and of commissural frontal lobe tracts. Microstructural measures in the superior longitudinal fasciculus were correlated with the PET metabolic changes within the inferior parietal and frontal eye field regions. Our results confirmed the predominant occipital-temporal and occipital-parietal degeneration in PCA patients. [18F]FDG-PETand DTI-MRI combined approaches revealed neurodegeneration effects well beyond the classical posterior cortical involvement, most likely as a consequence of deafferentation processes within the occipital-parietal-frontal network that could be at the basis of visuo-perceptual, visuo-spatial integration and attention deficits in PCA. 
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF