Affiliations: [a] Grupo de Neurociencias, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia | [b] Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA | [c] Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA | [d] Instituto de Alta Tecnología Médica - IATM, Medellín, Colombia | [e] Center for Memory and Brain, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA | [f] VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA | [g] Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Yakeel T. Quiroz, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, One Bowdoin Square, Suite 701, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel.: +1 617 643 3997;Fax: +1 617 726 5760; yquiroz@mgh.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Background: Brain regions critical to episodic memory are altered during the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, reliable means of identifying cognitively-normal individuals at higher risk to develop AD have not been established.
Objective: To examine whether functional MRI can detect early functional changes associated with scene encoding in a group of presymptomatic presenilin-1 (PSEN1) E280A mutation carriers.
Methods: Participants were 39 young, cognitively-normal individuals from an autosomal dominant early-onset AD kindred, located in Antioquia, Colombia. Participants performed a functional MRI scene encoding task and a post-scan subsequent memory test.
Results: PSEN1 mutation carriers exhibited hyperactivation within medial temporal lobe regions (hippocampus,parahippocampal formation) during successful scene encoding compared to age-matched non-carriers.
Conclusion: Hyperactivation in medial temporal lobe regions during scene encoding is seen in individuals genetically-determined to develop AD years before their clinical onset. Our findings will guide future research with the ultimate goal of using functional neuroimaging in the early detection of preclinical AD.
