Network analysis of PET-mapped visual pathways in Alzheimer type dementia

Neuroreport. 1995 Nov 27;6(17):2287-92. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199511270-00005.

Abstract

Using path analysis to determine the systems-level neural networks mediating specific tasks from regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) data obtained by positron emission tomography (PET), we recently found in young subjects strong functional linkages during a face matching task along a right hemisphere ventral network including occipital, temporal, and frontal regions. In this study, PET data obtained during a face matching task from mildly affected patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) and healthy matched controls showed that (1) the neural model obtained in young subjects provides a good fit to data from old subjects; (2) although the DAT patients could perform this task with the same accuracy as controls, they did not use the same functional network.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Alzheimer Disease / physiopathology*
  • Cerebrovascular Circulation / physiology
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Female
  • Frontal Lobe / blood supply
  • Frontal Lobe / diagnostic imaging
  • Frontal Lobe / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nerve Net / diagnostic imaging
  • Nerve Net / physiology*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed
  • Visual Cortex / blood supply
  • Visual Cortex / diagnostic imaging
  • Visual Cortex / physiology
  • Visual Pathways / diagnostic imaging
  • Visual Pathways / physiology*
  • Visual Perception / physiology