People in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) appear to use additional neural resources to compensate for brain losses attributable to the disease, study findings shows.
Cheryl Grady, from the Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues found that patients who showed greater activity in the prefrontal cortex during memory tests achieved significantlybetter results.
In all, 12 healthy older adults and 11 older patients with probable early stage AD who were taking medication for their cognitive impairment, took part in the study. All of the participants completed a series of computer-based tasks to test semantic and episodic memory, while their brain activity was measured using positron emission tomography.
The team reports in the Journal of Neuroscience that, while the AD patients’ overall performance was worse than that of the healthy participants, the range of scores for patients was wide, with some achieving scores in the normal range.
AD patients who performed well engaged a unique neural network involving bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior cortices, which presumably mediate executive functions, say the researchers. In contrast, healthy individuals had more activity in the left hemisphere, including prefrontal and temporal cortices.
Although the compensatory effect diminishes as the disease progresses, the researchers hope that the findings will lead to further research. “The goal, until more definitive preventive treatment is found, is to develop more effective treatments that extend this compensatory effect and delay the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s for longer periods,” Grady concludes.
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