Cerebral glucose metabolism is associated with verbal but not visual memory performance in community-dwelling older adults

Authors/Creators

• Samantha Gardener, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
• Hamid R. Sohrabi, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
• Kai-kai Shen
• Stephanie Rainey-Smith, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
• Michael Weinborn
• Kristyn A. Bates
• Tejal Shah
• Jonathan K. Foster
• Nat Lenzo
• Olivier Salvado
• Christoph Laske
• Simon M. Laws
• Kevin Taddei, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
• Giuseppe Verdile
• Ralph Martins, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Author Identifier (ORCID)

Samantha L Gardener

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1933-5260

Hamid Reza Sohrabi

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8017-8682

Kevin Taddei

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8106-7957

Ralph Martins

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4828-9363

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) sufferers show region-specific reductions in cerebral glucose metabolism, as measured by [¹⁸F]-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET). We investigated preclinical disease stage by cross-sectionally examining the association between global cognition, verbal and visual memory, and ¹⁸F-FDG PET standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) in 43 healthy control individuals, subsequently focusing on differences between subjective memory complainers and non-memory complainers. The ¹⁸F-FDG PET regions of interest investigated include the hippocampus, amygdala, posterior cingulate, superior parietal, entorhinal cortices, frontal cortex, temporal cortex, and inferior parietal region. In the cohort as a whole, verbal logical memory immediate recall was positively associated with ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR in both the left hippocampus and right amygdala. There were no associations observed between global cognition, delayed recall in logical memory, or visual reproduction and ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR. Following stratification of the cohort into subjective memory complainers and non-complainers, verbal logical memory immediate recall was positively associated with ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR in the right amygdala in those with subjective memory complaints. There were no significant associations observed in non-memory complainers between ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR in regions of interest and cognitive performance. We observed subjective memory complaint-specific associations between ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR and immediate verbal memory performance in our cohort, however found no associations between delayed recall of verbal memory performance or visual memory performance. It is here argued that the neural mechanisms underlying verbal and visual memory performance may in fact differ in their pathways, and the characteristic reduction of ¹⁸F-FDG PET SUVR observed in this and previous studies likely reflects the pathophysiological changes in specific brain regions that occur in preclinical AD.

Keywords

Brain glucose metabolism, cognition, 18F-FDG PET, subjective memory complaints, verbal memory, visual memory

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2016

Location of the Work

Netherlands

Publication Title

Journal of Alzheimer's Disease

Publisher

I O S Press

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

RAS ID

21782

Funders

National Health and Medical Research Council

Grant Number

NHMRC Number : 324100

Grant Link

http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/324100

Comments

Gardener, S. L., Sohrabi, H. R., Shen, K. K., Rainey-Smith, S. R., Weinborn, M., Bates, K. A., . . . Martins, R. N. (2016). Cerebral glucose metabolism is associated with verbal but not visual memory performance in community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 52(2), 661-672. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-151084

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