Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurosciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| [b] Dipartimento di Emergenza-Urgenza e Area Medica Generale e Specialistica, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Parma, Italy
| [c] Department of Medical Physic, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Parma, Italy
| [d] Department of Nuclear Medicine Department, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Parma, Italy
| [e] Centre of Cognitive Disorders and Dementia (CDCD), AUSL, Parma, Italy
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Paolo Caffarra, Department of Neurosciences, University of Parma, Via Gramsci, 14, 43126 Parma, Italy. Tel./Fax: +39 0521 704116; E-mail: paolo.caffarra@unipr.it.
Abstract: Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) measures immediate and delayed episodic memory and cueing sensitivity and is suitable to detect prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The present study aimed at investigating the segregation effect of FCSRT scores on brain metabolism of memory-related structures, usually affected by AD pathology, in the Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) stage. A cohort of forty-eight MCI patients underwent FCSRT and 18F-FDG-PET. Multiple regression analysis showed that Immediate Free Recall correlated with brain metabolism in the bilateral anterior cingulate and delayed free recall with the left anterior cingulate and medial frontal gyrus, whereas semantic cueing sensitivity with the left posterior cingulate. FCSRT in MCI is associated with neuro-functional activity of specific regions of memory-related structures connected to hippocampal formation, such as the cingulate cortex, usually damaged in AD.
