Cognitive Functions and White Matter Tract Damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study

Sarro, Lidia; Agosta, Federica; Canu, Elisa; Riva, Nilo; Prelle, A.; Copetti, Massimiliano; Riccitelli, Gianna Carla; Comi, Giancarlo; Filippi, Massimo

doi:10.3174/ajnr.a2658

Cited by 91 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Thinning in fronto-temporal extra-motor areas has been substantially evidenced through imaging studies in ALS [13,15,31]. The widespread extra-motor involvement corresponded with cognitive changes frequently associated with ALS [32][33][34]. Implications of the longitudinal changes in cognition are currently being evaluated in a separate analysis, as such an investigation would go beyond the scope of this paper.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Longitudinal course of cortical thickness decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

et al. 2014

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To determine longitudinal rates of cortical atrophy in classical Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and ALS variants. Rates of cortical thinning were determined between 2 scans, 3-15 months apart, in 77 ALS patients: 51 classical, 12 upper motor neuron (UMN), and 14 lower motor neuron (LMN) ALS variants. Cortical thickness at the first assessment was compared with 60 healthy controls matched by age and gender. Atrophy rates were compared between patient sub-groups and correlated with disease duration, progression, and severity. Using a cross-sectional analysis, we found a significant difference in cortical thickness between ALS patients and controls in the motor and extra-motor areas (left medial orbito frontal gyrus, left inferior parietal gyrus, bilateral insular cortex, right fusiform gyrus, bilateral precuneus). Using a longitudinal analysis, we found a significant decline of cortical thickness in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions over the course of the study in ALS patients. Effects were independent of the clinical subtype, with exception of the precentral gyrus (p < 0.001). The LMN ALS variants demonstrated the highest rates of cortical thinning in the precentral gyrus, the UMN-dominant subjects exhibited intermediate rates of atrophy, and the classical ALS patients exhibited no such change. Atrophy of the precentral gyrus in classical ALS indicates a floor effect at the first assessment, resulting in a lack of further atrophy over time. Structural loss of the precentral gyrus appears to be an early sign of classical ALS. Over time, patterns of cortical thinning in extra-motor areas can be identified in ALS, regardless of the phenotype.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Longitudinal course of cortical thickness decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

et al. 2014

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“…[52][53][54] Atrophy in temporal regions for both bvFTD and SD has been reported with WM changes found to be particularly important in the uncinate and longitudinal fasciculus. 2,[55][56][57] Atrophy in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus has been observed in ALS-FTD.…”

Section: Diffusion Tensor Imaging (Dti)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…80 Investigations of cognitive deficits in ALS, FTD and ALS-FTD patients have been found to covary with reduction of GM in several regions of the temporal lobes, including the hippocampal formation and amygdala as well as a loss of integrity of the WM networks connecting frontotemporal areas to parietal and occipital areas, including uncinate and longitudinal fasciculus. 9,54,[81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93] Episodic memory Amnesia, in particular, is problematic as a symptom in ALS and FTD, as it is currently considered as the diagnosis gold standard for underlying Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology. By contrast, episodic memory is considered to be preserved in the ALS-FTD spectrum and therefore, severe amnesia is even stated as a diagnostic exclusion criterion for the behavioural variant of FTD.…”

Section: Clinical/neuropsychological Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How predictive are temporal lobe changes of underlying TDP-43 pathology in the ALS-FTD continuum?

Bueno

Bertoux

Souza

et al. 2017

Ann Clin Neurophysiol

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Detection of underling proteinopathies is becoming increasingly important across neurodegenerative conditions due to upcoming disease intervention trials. In this review, we explored how temporal lobe changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can potentially predict underlying TDP-43 pathology subtypes in FTD. To date, emphasis has been given to frontal lobe changes in the study of the cognitive and behavioural impairments in both syndromes but an increasing number of pathological, imaging and neuropsychological studies suggest how temporal lobe changes could critically affect the cognition and behaviour of these conditions. In this current article, we reviewed pathological, imaging as well as clinical/neuropsychological findings of temporal involvement in the ALS-FTD continuum, how they relate to temporal lobe changes and the underlying TDP-43 pathology in FTD. Findings across studies show that TDP-43 pathology occurs and coincides in many structures in ALS and FTD, but especially in the temporal lobes. In particular, anterior and medial temporal lobes atrophy is consistently found in ALS and FTD. In addition, memory and language impairment as well as emotional and Theory of Mind processing deficits that are characteristics of the two diseases are highly correlated to temporal lobe dysfunction. We conclude by showing that temporal lobe changes due to TDP-43 type B might be particular predictive of TDP-43 type B pathology in behavioural variant FTD, which clearly needs to be investigated further in the future.

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“…Severe anatomical damage of primary motor cortex, corpus callosum, and corticospinal tract degeneration results in extramotor neuronal loss or thinning in frontotemporal and parietal regions, as described by surface-based morphometry and diffusion tensor MRI studies, [36][37][38] and is associated with regional hypometabolism. In this respect, investigating the networks Discrimination between controls and patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis obtained by generalized linear model underlying the metabolic deficits would not have added relevant information to the current knowledge about the spreading of hypometabolism associated with neuronal damage in ALS.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional pattern of brain FDG-PET in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Pagani¹,

Chiò²,

Valentini³

et al. 2014

Neurology

166

159

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Cognitive Functions and White Matter Tract Damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study

Cited by 91 publications

References 27 publications

Longitudinal course of cortical thickness decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Longitudinal course of cortical thickness decline in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

How predictive are temporal lobe changes of underlying TDP-43 pathology in the ALS-FTD continuum?

Functional pattern of brain FDG-PET in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

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