The functional anatomy of divided attentio

Lean Lee

Marc Seal

Sukhwinder S. Shergill

Thomas M. Dannhauser

Tim Stevens

Zuzana Walker

Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated changes in brain function in cognitively normal subjects at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Amne-stic mild cognitive impairment (AMCI) carries a high risk of developing into Alzheimer’s disease. In AMCI altered cortical activation has been demonstrated during memory tasks, using functional MRI (fMRI). Memory and atten-tion are closely related cognitive functions. It is unclear whether the memory impairment of AMCI is associated with attentional deficits of the sort likely to be revealed by tasks requiring divided attention. Ten older adults (mean age 72 years, range 57–81 years) with AMCI were com-pared with healthy matched controls on divided attention and passive sensory processing tasks using fMRI. During the divided attention task both groups activated similar regions of left hemispheric prefrontal and extrastriate visual cortex. However, the AMCI group had attenuated prefrontal activation compared with age matched con-trols. On the passive sensory processing task there was no difference between the AMCI and control groups. We conclude that there are changes in the functional network subserving divided attention in patients with AMCI as reflected in the attenuation of prefrontal cortical activa-tion. These findings have implications for evaluating cog-nition in AMCI and also for monitoring the effects of future treatments in AMCI

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Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Epping, UK Summary

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2005/02/10/brain.awh413.full.pdf

Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Epping, UK Summary

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