0000000000592544
AUTHOR
Kennedy A
Alzheimer patients engage an alternative cortical network during a memory task.
We conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to better understand the potentially compensatory alternative brain networks activated by a clinically relevant face-name association task in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and matched control subjects. We recruited 17 healthy subjects and 12 AD patients at an early stage of the disease. They underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning in four sessions. Each of the sessions combined a “study” phase and a “test” phase. Face/name pairs were presented in each study phase, and subjects were asked to associate faces with names. In the test phase, a recognition task, faces seen in the study phase were p…
IMPAIRED ALLOCENTRIC SPATIAL MEMORY UNDERLYNG TOPOGRAPHICAL DISORIENTATION
The cognitive processes supporting spatial navigation are considered in the context of a patient (CF) with possible very early Alzheimer's disease who presents with topographical disorientation. Her verbal memory and her recognition memory for unknown buildings, landmarks and outdoor scenes was intact, although she showed an impairment in face processing. By contrast, her navigational ability, quantitatively assessed within a small virtual reality (VR) town, was significantly impaired. Interestingly, she showed a selective impairment in a VR object-location memory test whenever her viewpoint was shifted between presentation and test, but not when tested from the same viewpoint. We suggest t…