TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural substrates for writing impairments in Japanese patients with mild Alzheimer's disease
T2 - A SPECT study
AU - Hayashi, Atsuko
AU - Nomura, Hiroshi
AU - Mochizuki, Ruriko
AU - Ohnuma, Ayumu
AU - Kimpara, Teiko
AU - Ootomo, Kazumasa
AU - Hosokai, Yoshiyuki
AU - Ishioka, Toshiyuki
AU - Suzuki, Kyoko
AU - Mori, Etsuro
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partly supported by a research grant from the Research Fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists to A. Hayashi ( 1840102 ), the Global COE Program (Basic and Translational Research Center for Global Brain Science), MEXT, Japan, Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants (Research on Dementia), and a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ( 21830018 to A.H.). We express our thanks to the patients and controls who participated in this study. We also thank Kazuhiko Ishikura and Shuichi Kodama for their assistance in preparing the SPECT data.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - Language is fairly well preserved in most patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, but writing ability seems to be impaired even in the early stages of the disease. To investigate the neural bases of writing impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we examined the correlation between writing ability and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 52 Japanese patients with mild AD compared to 22 controls, using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). We found that, compared with control subjects, Kana writing to dictation and copying Kanji words were preserved in AD patients, but writing to dictating Kanji words was impaired. We classified the errors in the Kanji dictation task into four types to investigate the correlation between rCBF and the error type, as follows: non-response errors, phonologically plausible errors, non-phonologically plausible errors, and peripheral errors. Non-response errors, which indicated difficulty with retrieving Kanji graphic images, were the most frequent. When controlled for confounding factors, the number of non-response errors negatively correlated with rCBF in the left inferior parietal lobule, the posterior middle and inferior temporal gyri, and the posterior middle frontal gyrus. Thus, the impaired recall of Kanji in early Alzheimer's disease is related to dysfunctional cortical activity, which appears to be predominant in the left frontal, parietal, and temporal regions.
AB - Language is fairly well preserved in most patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, but writing ability seems to be impaired even in the early stages of the disease. To investigate the neural bases of writing impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we examined the correlation between writing ability and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 52 Japanese patients with mild AD compared to 22 controls, using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). We found that, compared with control subjects, Kana writing to dictation and copying Kanji words were preserved in AD patients, but writing to dictating Kanji words was impaired. We classified the errors in the Kanji dictation task into four types to investigate the correlation between rCBF and the error type, as follows: non-response errors, phonologically plausible errors, non-phonologically plausible errors, and peripheral errors. Non-response errors, which indicated difficulty with retrieving Kanji graphic images, were the most frequent. When controlled for confounding factors, the number of non-response errors negatively correlated with rCBF in the left inferior parietal lobule, the posterior middle and inferior temporal gyri, and the posterior middle frontal gyrus. Thus, the impaired recall of Kanji in early Alzheimer's disease is related to dysfunctional cortical activity, which appears to be predominant in the left frontal, parietal, and temporal regions.
KW - Dementia
KW - Kana
KW - Kanji
KW - Regional cerebral blood flow
KW - Writing disorder
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.024
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.024
M3 - Article
C2 - 21439989
AN - SCOPUS:79956131592
VL - 49
SP - 1962
EP - 1968
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
SN - 0028-3932
IS - 7
ER -