Impact of long- and short-range fibre depletion on the cognitive deficits of fronto-temporal dementia

eLife

Paolo Vitali¹  Thijs Dhollander²  Yasser Iturria-Medina³  Min Su Kang⁴  Sulantha Mathotaarachchi⁴  Andrea Lessa Benedet⁴  Stijn Servaes⁴  Joseph Therriault⁴  Pedro Rosa-Neto⁵  Serge Gauthier⁵  Tharick A Pascoal⁶  Melissa Savard⁷ 

[1] Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;Developmental Imaging, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia;Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, The McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Montreal, Canada;Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, The McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Montreal, Canada;Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, The McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Montreal, Canada;Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States;Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, The McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Montreal, Canada;Douglas Hospital Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;

关键词: DTI;    dementia;    FTD;    MRI;    white matter;    grey matter;    Human;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.73510

来源: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

【 摘 要 】

Recent studies suggest a framework where white-matter (WM) atrophy plays an important role in fronto-temporal dementia (FTD) pathophysiology. However, these studies often overlook the fact that WM tracts bridging different brain regions may have different vulnerabilities to the disease and the relative contribution of grey-matter (GM) atrophy to this WM model, resulting in a less comprehensive understanding of the relationship between clinical symptoms and pathology. Using a common factor analysis to extract a semantic and an executive factor, we aimed to test the relative contribution of WM and GM of specific tracts in predicting cognition in the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Neuroimaging Initiative (FTLDNI). We found that semantic symptoms were mainly dependent on short-range WM fibre disruption, while damage to long-range WM fibres was preferentially associated to executive dysfunction with the GM contribution to cognition being predominant for local processing. These results support the importance of the disruption of specific WM tracts to the core cognitive symptoms associated with FTD. As large-scale WM tracts, which are particularly vulnerable to vascular disease, were highly associated with executive dysfunction, our findings highlight the importance of controlling for risk factors associated with deep WM disease, such as vascular risk factors, in patients with FTD in order not to potentiate underlying executive dysfunction.

【 授权许可】

CC BY