Increased cortical recruitment in Huntington's disease using a Simon task.

Full Abstract

Cognitive deficits in Huntington's disease (HD) have been attributed to neuronal degeneration within the striatum; however, postmortem and structural imaging studies have revealed more widespread morphological changes. To examine the impact of HD-related changes in regions outside the striatum, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in HD to examine brain activation patterns using a Simon task that required a button press response to either congruent or incongruent arrow stimuli. Twenty mild to moderate stage HD patients and 17 healthy controls were scanned using a 3T GE scanner. Data analysis involved the use of statistical parametric mapping software with a random effects analysis model to investigate group differences brain activation patterns compared to baseline. HD patients recruited frontal and parietal cortical regions to perform the task, and also showed significantly greater activation, compared to controls, in the caudal anterior cingulate, insula, inferior parietal lobules, superior temporal gyrus bilaterally, right inferior frontal gyrus, right precuneus/superior parietal lobule, left precentral gyrus, and left dorsal premotor cortex. The significantly increased activation in anterior cingulate-frontal-motor-parietal cortex in HD may represent a primary dysfunction due to direct cell loss or damage in cortical regions, and/or a secondary compensatory mechanism of increased cortical recruitment due to primary striatal deficits.

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Author information

Author/s: Georgiou-Karistianis, Nellie (N); Sritharan, Anusha (A); Farrow, Maree (M); Cunnington, Ross (R); Stout, Julie (J); Bradshaw, John (J); Churchyard, Andrew (A); Brawn, Tamara-Leigh (TL); Chua, Phyllis (P); Chiu, Edmond (E); Thiruvady, Dhananjay (D); Egan, Gary (G);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. nellie.georgiou-karistianis(-atsign-)med.monash.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Apr; vol 45 (issue 8) : pp 1791-800

Dates: Created 2007/03/16; Completed 2007/06/21;

PMID: 17321554, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Brain Mapping
Case-Control Studies
Cerebral Cortex - blood supply; physiopathology
Female
Humans
Huntington Disease - pathology; physiopathology
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods

Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Space Perception - physiology

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