Introduction: Previous studies revealed a correlation between local brain volume and cognitive function. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between local gray matter volume and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) logical/verbal memory (WMS-R-verbal) score in healthy adults using a 3 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner and voxel-based morphometry (VBM).
Methods: T1-weighted magnetic resonance images were obtained in 1,169 healthy adults. The T1-weighted images in native space were bias-corrected, spatially normalized, and segmented into gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid images with Statistical Parametric Mapping 5. To investigate regionally the specific effects of the WMS-R-verbal score on the gray matter images, simple regression analysis was performed by VBM treating age, total intracranial volume, and gender as confounding covariates. A P value of less than 0.05 corrected with false discovery rate in voxel difference was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: Our study showed a significant positive correlation between the WMS-R-verbal score and the bilateral entorhinal cortex volume. In the right entorhinal, T value is 4.75, and the size of the clusters is 155 voxels. In the left entorhinal, T value is 4.08, and the size of the clusters is 23 voxels. A significant negative correlation was not found.
Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first VBM study showing that entorhinal cortex volume is positively correlated with the WMS-R-verbal score for healthy subjects. Therefore, in our structural neuroimaging study, we add evidence to the hypothesis that the entorhinal cortex is involved in verbal memory processing.