Abstract
Objective: To examine alterations in patterns of brain activation seen in normal aging and in mild Alzheimer's disease by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an associative encoding task. Methods: 10 young controls, 10 elderly controls, and seven patients with mild Alzheimer's disease were studied using fMRI during a face-name association encoding task. The fMRI paradigm used a block design with three conditions: novel face-name pairs, repeated face-name pairs, and visual fixation. Results: The young and elderly controls differed primarily in the pattern of activation seen in prefrontal and parietal cortices: elderly controls showed significantly less activation in both superior and inferior prefrontal cortices but greater activation in parietal regions than younger controls during the encoding of novel face-name pairs. Compared with elderly controls, the Alzheimer patients showed significantly less activation in the hippocampal formation but greater activation in the medial parietal and posterior cingulate regions. Conclusions: The pattern of fMRI activation during the encoding of novel associations is differentially altered in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease compared with normal aging.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 44-50 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry |
Volume | 74 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Surgery
- Clinical Neurology
- Psychiatry and Mental health