Different Cognitional Patterns of Brain Activation in Normal Aging and Alzheimer s disease: A Review

Background: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder, frequently affecting cognitional functions. Recently, a large body of neuro-imaging studies have aimed at finding reliable biomarkers to early differentiate AD patients from healthy elderlies. We intend to have a systematic review and meta-analytical study on recent functional neuroimaging studies to find the relationship between cognition in AD patients and normal elderlies Methods: A systematic search will be conducted to collect the functional neuroimaging studies such as positron emission therapy (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in AD patients and healthy elderlies.The coordinates of regions related to cognition will be meta-analyzed using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method and Sleuth software. P-value map at the false discovery rate (FDR) of P b 0.05 thresholds and the clusters with a minimum size of 200 mm3 will be considered. Data will be visualized with MANGO software. Results: A systematic search was conducted to collect functional neuroimaging studies such as positron emission therapy (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in AD patients and healthy elderlies. The coordinates of regions related to cognition were meta-analyzed using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method and Sleuth software. P-value map at the false discovery rate (FDR) of P < 0.05 thresholds and the clusters with a minimum size of 200 mm3 were considered. Data were visualized with MANGO software.Conclusion: Forty-one articles that explored the areas activated during cognition in normal elderly subjects and AD patients were found. According to the findings, left middle frontal gyrus and left precuneus are the most activated areas in cognitional tasks in healthy elderlies and AD patients respectively. In normal elderly subjects and AD patients, comparison of ALE maps and reverse contrast showed that insula and left precuneus were the most activated areas in cognitional aspects respectively. With respect to unification of left precuneus activation in cognitional tasks, it seems that this point can be a hallmark in primary differentiation of AD and healthy individuals.

کلیدواژه ها:

Alzheimer disease ، Aging ، Neuroimaging ، Cognition