Brain signature of mild stages of cognitive and behavioral impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

作者：Branco Lucas M T; de Rezende Thiago J R; Roversi Caroline de O; Zanao Tamires; Casseb Raphael F; de Campos Brunno M; Franca Marcondes C Jr^*

来源：Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , 2018, 272: 58-64.

DOI：10.1016/j.pscychresns.2017.11.010

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Cognition
• Multi-atlas based analysis
• FreeSurfer

We aimed to assess the brain signature of cognitive and behavioral impairment in C9orf72-negative non-demented ALS patients. The study included 50 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients (out of 75 initially recruited) and 38 healthy controls. High-resolution T1-weighted and spin-echo diffusion tensor images were acquired in a 3 T MRI scanner. The multi atlas-based analysis protocol and the FreeSurfer tool were employed for gray matter assessment, and fiber tractography for white matter evaluation. Cognitively impaired ALS patients (n = 12) had bilateral amygdalae and left thalamic volumetric reduction compared to non-impaired ALS patients. Behaviorally impaired ALS patients (n = 14) had lower fractional anisotropy (FA) at the fornix in comparison with healthy subjects. These parameters did correlate with cognitive/behavioral scores, but not with motorfunctional parameters in the ALS cohort. We believe that basal ganglia and fornix damage might be related to cognitive and behavioral impairment across ALS-frontotemporal dementia continuum. Also, distinct anatomical areas seem to influence the behavioral and cognitive status of these individuals.

• 出版日期2018-2-28