Hippocampal volume and retention in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that the hippocampus has a relatively specific role in retaining information over delays. Thirty-seven subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease were evaluated with a verbal memory task and structural MRI. Cortical gray matter but not hippocampal volume predicted immediate free recall. In contrast, hippocampal volume was the best predictor of how well information was retained over a delay, even after controlling for levels of immediate recall. Results suggest that the role of the hippocampus is relatively specific to the consolidation of new memories.

Multicentre variability of MRI-based medial temporal lobe volumetry in Alzheimer's disease

“…They agree with several earlier studies showing correlations between memory related cognitive measures and hippocampus [42] and amygdala [4,35,37] volume. In agreement with earlier studies [27,28], we found significant correlations of hippocampus volumes with delayed free recall, but not with immediate memory of a word list, supporting the specific role of hippocampus in the consolidation rather than encoding of new material [48]. Interestingly, however, not only delayed, but also immediate logical memory was correlated with hippocampal and amygdala volumes.…”

“…Different to fixed effects models, mixed effects models allow drawing inference not only on the particular set of centres and raters involved, but on a whole population of centres and raters [49]. Earlier studies have used multicentre data as well, but either did not consider centre effects at all [28] or used a fixed effects model that does not allow for variation of effects between centres [24].…”

“…However, studies using samples derived from multiple sites have not considered centre effects [28]. The same is true for studies on the effect of ApoE4 genotpye, the best established genetic risk factor for sporadic AD [10], on hippocampus and amygdala volumes [15].…”

Correlação entre memória e volume de estruturas cerebrais em idosos deprimidos: um estudo de morfometria baseada no voxel

“…Alterações em outras funções cognitivas, como atenção, organização e memória de trabalho, afetam a forma como a nova informação será armazenada e posteriormente resgatada (Kramer et al, 2004). A maneira como essa nova informação será memorizada é mediada por regiões frontais, outras estruturas corticais que não o hipocampo, e também estruturas subcorticais (Stuss e Alexander, 2000;Mungas et al, 2001).…”

“…Correlação positiva entre memória e hipocampo foi verificada em exames de RM em pacientes neurológicos, como pacientes com DA Barber et al, 2001;Bottino et al, 2002;Kramer et al, 2004), e alguns estudos em sujeitos com comprometimento cognitivo leve (CCL) (Soininen et al, 1994;Jack et al, 2000;Bottino et al, 2002). No entanto, em estudo realizado por Duarte et al (2006), não foi encontrada nenhuma correlação nessa população.…”