Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2010 Nov;16(6):1115-26. doi: 10.1017/S1355617710001025. Epub 2010 Oct 15.
Mapping the cerebral structural correlates of age-related cognitive decline is a growing area of research. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between healthy elderly's perceived memory functioning in daily life, neuropsychological test performance on a standardized test on verbal memory, and cortical thickness and subcortical volumes in brain regions implicated in memory networks, including the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Eighty-three healthy and cognitively well-functioning volunteers aged 60-85 years underwent MRI scans, Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ), and neuropsychological assessment. Both self-perceived memory in daily life related to attention and executive functions and an objective measure of verbal recall (CVLT) were, independently, associated with thickness of the left MTL. The two cognitive variables were uncorrelated, and including both measures in the model nearly doubled the amount of explained variance on MTL thickness. This suggests that measures of perceived everyday memory might substantially inform and supplement studies investigating the relationships between neuropsychological test performance and brain morphology. The results are consistent with a bigger-is-better relationship in the MTL and suggest that EMQ and neuropsychological test performance have detectable and comparable structural correlates in a region critically involved in memory functions in the well-functioning elderly.
研究老年人认知能力下降的大脑结构相关性是一个日益增长的领域。本研究旨在探讨健康老年人日常生活中感知到的记忆功能、标准化言语记忆测试中的神经心理学测试表现，以及包括内侧颞叶（MTL）在内的与记忆网络相关的大脑区域的皮质厚度和皮质下体积之间的关系。83 名年龄在 60-85 岁之间、认知功能良好的志愿者接受了 MRI 扫描、日常记忆问卷（EMQ）和神经心理学评估。日常生活中的自我感知记忆与注意力和执行功能有关，言语回忆的客观测量（CVLT）与左侧 MTL 的厚度独立相关。这两个认知变量不相关，在模型中同时包含这两个测量指标，几乎使 MTL 厚度的解释方差增加了一倍。这表明，对日常记忆的感知测量可能会极大地为研究神经心理学测试表现与大脑形态之间的关系提供信息和补充。研究结果与 MTL 中的越大越好的关系一致，并表明 EMQ 和神经心理学测试表现具有可检测和可比的结构相关性，这在功能良好的老年人中与记忆功能密切相关。
