Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA,
Brain Imaging Behav. 2013 Sep;7(3):282-92. doi: 10.1007/s11682-013-9226-3.
Persons with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) have significant deficits in financial abilities. This study examined the relationship between brain structure volumes, cognition, and financial capacity in patients with mild AD. Sixteen mild AD patients and 16 older adult comparisons completed the Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI), a psychometric measure of financial abilities, and also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain volumes of the bilateral hippocampi, angular gyri, precunei, and medial and dorsolateral frontal cortices. Mild AD patients performed significantly below comparisons on the FCI and had significantly smaller hippocampi. Among mild AD patients, FCI performance was moderately correlated with frontal (medial and dorsolateral frontal cortex) and posterior (angular gyri and precunei) cortical volumes. Stepwise regression demonstrated that medial frontal cortex volume predicted FCI score. The relationship between medial frontal cortex volume and overall FCI score was partially mediated by two measures of simple attention (DRS Attention, DRS Construction). The findings suggest that medial frontal cortex atrophy and associated declines in simple attention play an increasingly important role in declining financial skills in patients with mild AD.
轻度阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者的财务能力存在明显缺陷。本研究旨在探讨轻度 AD 患者的大脑结构体积、认知与财务能力之间的关系。16 名轻度 AD 患者和 16 名老年对照组完成了财务能力量表（FCI）的测试，这是一种衡量财务能力的心理计量学测量工具，同时还进行了磁共振成像（MRI）检查，以获得双侧海马体、角回、楔前叶以及额内侧和额外侧皮质的体积。与对照组相比，轻度 AD 患者在 FCI 上的表现明显较差，且海马体体积明显较小。在轻度 AD 患者中，FCI 表现与额叶（额内侧和额外侧皮质）和后叶（角回和楔前叶）皮质体积呈中度相关。逐步回归显示，额内侧皮质体积可预测 FCI 评分。额内侧皮质体积与整体 FCI 评分的关系部分通过两个简单注意力测量（DRS 注意力，DRS 结构）来中介。研究结果表明，额内侧皮质萎缩以及与简单注意力下降相关的认知能力下降，在轻度 AD 患者财务技能下降中起着越来越重要的作用。
