Hippocampal atrophy and neocortical dysfunction in early Alzheimer’s disease
- Department of Neurology, Box 83, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK
- Correspondence to: Professor J-C Baron; jcb54{at}cam.ac.uk
Is there a relationship between medial temporal lobe atrophy and brain dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease?
Although it would appear straightforward that neuronal loss in and by itself explains the cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), things are considerably more complicated as shown by Garrido et al (this issue pp 508–16).1 In this elegant study of nine patients with very mild AD, the authors assessed the relationships between hippocampal volume (assessed with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and voxel based morphometry), and the changes in cerebral perfusion (mapped with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)) during a verbal recognition memory task. Increasing hippocampal atrophy was associated with reduced activation of the extensive left sided network normally engaged by this episodic task, but …
