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Krebs C, Brill E, Minkova L, Federspiel A, Kellner-Weldon F, Wyss P, Teunissen CE, van Harten AC, Seydell-Greenwald A, Klink K, Züst MA, Brem AK, Klöppel S. Investigating Compensatory Brain Activity in Older Adults with Subjective Cognitive Decline. J Alzheimers Dis 2023; 93:107-124. [PMID: 36970895 DOI: 10.3233/jad-221001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one possible cause of subjective cognitive decline (SCD). Normal task performance despite ongoing neurodegeneration is typically considered as neuronal compensation, which is reflected by greater neuronal activity. Compensatory brain activity has been observed in frontal as well as parietal regions in SCD, but data are scarce, especially outside the memory domain. OBJECTIVE To investigate potential compensatory activity in SCD. Such compensatory activity is particularly expected in participants where blood-based biomarkers indicated amyloid positivity as this implies preclinical AD. METHODS 52 participants with SCD (mean age: 71.00±5.70) underwent structural and functional neuroimaging (fMRI), targeting episodic memory and spatial abilities, and a neuropsychological assessment. The estimation of amyloid positivity was based on plasma amyloid-β and phosphorylated tau (pTau181) measures. RESULTS Our fMRI analyses of the spatial abilities task did not indicate compensation, with only three voxels exceeding an uncorrected threshold at p < 0.001. This finding was not replicated in a subset of 23 biomarker positive individuals. CONCLUSION Our results do not provide conclusive evidence for compensatory brain activity in SCD. It is possible that neuronal compensation does not manifest at such an early stage as SCD. Alternatively, it is possible that our sample size was too small or that compensatory activity may be too heterogeneous to be detected by group-level statistics. Interventions based on the individual fMRI signal should therefore be explored.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine Krebs
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Esther Brill
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
- Graduate School for Health Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Lora Minkova
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Andrea Federspiel
- Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Ber, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Frauke Kellner-Weldon
- Section Neuroradiology of the Department of Radiology, Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
| | - Patric Wyss
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Charlotte E Teunissen
- Neurochemistry Laboratory, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Amsterdam Vrije University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Argonde C van Harten
- Alzheimer Center Amsterdam, Department of Neurology, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | | | - Katharina Klink
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Marc A Züst
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Anna-Katharine Brem
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Stefan Klöppel
- University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Scheller E, Schumacher LV, Peter J, Lahr J, Wehrle J, Kaller CP, Gaser C, Klöppel S. Brain Aging and APOE ε4 Interact to Reveal Potential Neuronal Compensation in Healthy Older Adults. Front Aging Neurosci 2018; 10:74. [PMID: 29615896 PMCID: PMC5869204 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2017] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Compensation implies the recruitment of additional neuronal resources to prevent the detrimental effect of age-related neuronal decline on cognition. Recently suggested statistical models comprise behavioral performance, brain activation, and measures related to aging- or disease-specific pathological burden to characterize compensation. Higher chronological age as well as the APOE ε4 allele are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. A more biological approach to characterize aging compared with chronological age is the brain age gap estimation (BrainAGE), taking into account structural brain characteristics. We utilized this estimate in an fMRI experiment together with APOE variant as measures related to pathological burden and aimed at identifying compensatory regions during working memory (WM) processing in a group of 34 healthy older adults. According to published compensation criteria, better performance along with increased brain activation would indicate successful compensation. We examined the moderating effects of BrainAGE on the relationship between task performance and brain activation in prefrontal cortex, as previous studies suggest predominantly frontal compensatory activation. Then we statistically compared them to the effects of chronological age (CA) tested in a previous study. Moreover, we examined the effects of adding APOE variant as a further moderator. Herewith, we strived to uncover neuronal compensation in healthy older adults at risk for neurodegenerative disease. Higher BrainAGE alone was not associated with an increased recruitment in prefrontal cortex. When adding APOE variant as a second moderator, we found an interaction of BrainAGE and APOE variant, such that ε4 carriers recruited right inferior frontal gyrus with higher BrainAGE to maintain WM performance, thus showing a pattern compatible with successful neuronal compensation. Exploratory analyses yielded similar patterns in left inferior and bilateral middle frontal gyrus. These results contrast those from a previous study, where we found no indication of compensation in prefrontal cortex in ε4 carriers with increasing CA. We conclude that BrainAGE together with APOE variant can help to reveal potential neuronal compensation in healthy older adults. Previous results on neuronal compensation in frontal areas corroborate our findings. Compensatory brain regions could be targeted in affected individuals by training or stimulation protocols to maintain cognitive functioning as long as possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Scheller
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Lena V Schumacher
- Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Jessica Peter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jacob Lahr
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Julius Wehrle
- Department of Medicine I, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Berta-Ottenstein-Programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Freiburg, Germany.,German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christoph P Kaller
- Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Christian Gaser
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.,Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
| | - Stefan Klöppel
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.,University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Dillo W, Göke A, Prox-Vagedes V, Szycik GR, Roy M, Donnerstag F, Emrich HM, Ohlmeier MD. Neuronal correlates of ADHD in adults with evidence for compensation strategies--a functional MRI study with a Go/No-Go paradigm. Ger Med Sci 2010; 8:Doc09. [PMID: 20421953 PMCID: PMC2858877 DOI: 10.3205/000098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2010] [Revised: 03/27/2010] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Objective: Response inhibition impairment is one of the most characteristic symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a Go/No-Go task seems to be an ideal tool for examining neuronal correlates of inhibitory control deficits in ADHD. Prior studies have shown frontostriatal abnormalities in children and adolescents. The aim of our study was to investigate whether adults with ADHD would still show abnormal brain activation in prefrontal brain regions during motor response inhibition tasks. Methods: fMRI was used to compare brain activation in 15 untreated adult patients with ADHD and 15 healthy reference volunteers during performance of a Go/No-Go task. Results: In contrast to various other studies with children and adolescents with ADHD, we found no significant difference in the activity of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) or other frontostriatal structures between ADHD and healthy adults. Significantly enhanced activity was found in the parietal cortex, which is known to play an important role in building up attention. Conclusion: We hypothesize that the enhanced activity is due to the ability of adult ADHD patients to compensate their deficits for a short time, which is demonstrated in our study by equal task performance in both groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Dillo
- Department of Psychiatry, Socialpsychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
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