TY - JOUR
T1 - The neural basis of naming impairments in Alzheimer's disease revealed through positron emission tomography
AU - Watson, Maria E.
AU - Welsh-Bohmer, Kathleen A.
AU - Hoffman, John M.
AU - Lowe, Val
AU - Rubin, David C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institute on Aging grants AG05128 and AG09997 to the Bryan ADRC and by National Science Foundation grant BNS-90-10074 to DCR. The authors are particularly grateful to Dr. Edward Coleman and the staff in the PET facility for their help in the execution of this study. We also thank the neurologists of the Bryan ADRC, particularly Drs. Nancy Earl, James Burke, and Donald Schmechel, who referred patients to the study and who reviewed the clinical records to assure consistent diagnostic assignment across clinicians; and we thank Dr. Brent Kolitz who assisted with earlier investigations pertinent to this work.
PY - 1999/5
Y1 - 1999/5
N2 - The naming impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been attributed to a variety of cognitive processing deficits, including impairments in semantic memory, visual perception, and lexical access. To further understand the underlying biological basis of the naming failures in AD, the present investigation examined the relationship of various classes of naming errors to regional brain measures of cerebral glucose metabolism as measured with 18 F-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) and positron emission tomography (PET). Errors committed on a visual naming test were categorized according to a cognitive processing schema and then examined in relationship to metabolism within specific brain regions. The results revealed an association of semantic errors with glucose metabolism in the frontal and temporal regions. Language access errors, such as circumlocutions, and word blocking nonresponses were associated with decreased metabolism in areas within the left hemisphere. Visuoperceptive errors were related to right inferior parietal metabolic function. The findings suggest that specific brain areas mediate the perceptual, semantic, and lexical processing demands of visual naming and that visual naming problems in dementia are related to dysfunction in specific neural circuits.
AB - The naming impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been attributed to a variety of cognitive processing deficits, including impairments in semantic memory, visual perception, and lexical access. To further understand the underlying biological basis of the naming failures in AD, the present investigation examined the relationship of various classes of naming errors to regional brain measures of cerebral glucose metabolism as measured with 18 F-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) and positron emission tomography (PET). Errors committed on a visual naming test were categorized according to a cognitive processing schema and then examined in relationship to metabolism within specific brain regions. The results revealed an association of semantic errors with glucose metabolism in the frontal and temporal regions. Language access errors, such as circumlocutions, and word blocking nonresponses were associated with decreased metabolism in areas within the left hemisphere. Visuoperceptive errors were related to right inferior parietal metabolic function. The findings suggest that specific brain areas mediate the perceptual, semantic, and lexical processing demands of visual naming and that visual naming problems in dementia are related to dysfunction in specific neural circuits.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0887-6177(98)00027-4
DO - 10.1016/S0887-6177(98)00027-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 14590589
AN - SCOPUS:0032903718
SN - 0887-6177
VL - 14
SP - 347
EP - 357
JO - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
JF - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
IS - 4
ER -