Faculty Collaboration Database

Recovery of hippocampal network connectivity correlates with cognitive improvement in mild Alzheimer's disease patients treated with donepezil assessed by resting-state fMRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 2011 Oct;34(4):764-73

Date

07/20/2011

Pubmed ID

21769962

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3177015

DOI

10.1002/jmri.22662

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-80052982355 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   82 Citations

Abstract

PURPOSE: To identify the neural correlates of cognitive improvement in mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects following 12 weeks of donepezil treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) was used to measure the hippocampal functional connectivity (HFC) in 14 mild AD and 18 age-matched normal (CN) subjects. AD subjects were scanned at baseline and after donepezil treatment. CN subjects were scanned only at baseline as a reference to identify regions correlated or anticorrelated to the hippocampus. Before each scan, participants underwent cognitive, behavioral, and functional assessments.

RESULTS: After donepezil treatment, neural correlates of cognitive improvement measured by Mini-Mental State Examination scores were identified in the left parahippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and inferior frontal gyrus. Improvement in AD Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale scores correlated with the HFC changes in the left DLPFC and middle frontal gyrus. Stronger recovery in the network connectivity was associated with cognitive improvement.

CONCLUSION: R-fMRI may provide novel insights into the brain's responses to AD treatment in clinical pharmacological trials, and also may predict clinical response.

Author List

Goveas JS, Xie C, Ward BD, Wu Z, Li W, Franczak M, Jones JL, Antuono PG, Li SJ

Authors

Piero G. Antuono MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Malgorzata Franczak MD Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Joseph S. Goveas MD Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Alzheimer Disease
Case-Control Studies
Cognition Disorders
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Drug Administration Schedule
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Hippocampus
Humans
Indans
Linear Models
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Nerve Net
Neuropsychological Tests
Piperidines
Recovery of Function
Reference Values
Severity of Illness Index
Treatment Outcome