Article

A single photon emission computerised tomography study of regional brain fuction underlying verbal memory in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia

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Citation

Riddle WJ, O'Carroll R, Dougall N, Van Beck M, Murray CM, Curran SM, Ebmeier KP & Goodwin GM (1993) A single photon emission computerised tomography study of regional brain fuction underlying verbal memory in patients with Alzheimer-type dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163 (2), pp. 166-172. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.163.2.166

Abstract
Ten patients with Alzheimer-type dementia and nine age-matched normal controls were examined with SPECT, using split-dose 99mTc-labelled exametazime. The baseline condition involved repetition of the word 'yes' or 'no'. The activation condition involved recognition (indicated by a 'yes' or 'no') of words from a previously learned list presented along with distractor words. Patients who performed this task successfully were selected, and efforts were made to match the patients with controls according to their performance on the task, although this was not fully achieved. Uptake of 99mTc-exametazime was estimated at baseline and during the word-recognition task for predetermined regions of interest drawn from a standard neuroanatomical atlas. The baseline task appeared to normalise tracer uptake for frontal, temporal and parietal cortex in the patient group. However, during the recognition task, controls but not patients showed activation effects. These were most prominent in dorsolateral frontal cortex and adjacent anterior cingulate cortex. Among patients, successful performance was correlated with activation of dorsolateral frontal and parietal cortex on the left side. The results confirm the central role of frontal mechanisms in a recognition memory task. The study highlights some of the difficulties of using cognitive challenge tests in clinical groups.

Journal
British Journal of Psychiatry: Volume 163, Issue 2