Hearing and cognitive impairment: a functional evaluation of associative brain areas in patients affected by Alzheimer's disease

Funct Neurol. 2019 Jan-Mar;34(1):15-20.

Abstract

Auditory dysfunction observed in patients with cognitive diseases is probably due to the alteration of some brain areas involved in sound stimulus processing. The present study aimed to investigate differences in such processing and in connectivity of the primary auditory cortex in patients affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in normal subjects. We examined 131 diagnosed AD patients and a control group (CG) of 36 normal subjects. After a complete clinical investigation, focused on hearing function, all subjects underwent a brain FDG PET/CT. AD subjects vs CG showed reduced glucose consumption in BA 6,7,8,39, whereas we did not find differences in the primary auditory cortex. In AD, connectivity analyses showed a positive correlation of the primary auditory cortex with BA 6,8,21,31,39,40,42 and a negative correlation with BA 19, cerebellum and basal ganglia. Our findings suggest that neurological evaluation of patients with hearing loss might allow earlier (preclinical) identification of those affected by cognitive impairment.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnostic imaging*
  • Alzheimer Disease / epidemiology
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging*
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / diagnostic imaging*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / epidemiology
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / metabolism
  • Female
  • Glucose / metabolism
  • Hearing Loss / diagnostic imaging*
  • Hearing Loss / epidemiology
  • Hearing Loss / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography / methods*

Substances

  • Glucose