Laboratorio de Neurociencias Cognitivas y Desarrollo, Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Panamericana, Ciudad de México, México.
Laboratorio de Neuropsicología, Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 24;16(3):e0249144. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249144. eCollection 2021.
Early Huntington's disease (HD) patients begin to show planning deficits even before motor alterations start to manifest. Generally, planning ability is associated with the functioning of anterior brain areas such as the medial prefrontal cortex. However, early HD neuropathology involves significant atrophy in the occipital and parietal cortex, suggesting that more posterior regions could also be involved in these planning deficits.
To identify brain regions associated with planning deficits in HD patients at an early clinical stage.
Twenty-two HD-subjects genetically confirmed with incipient clinical manifestation and twenty healthy subjects were recruited. All participants underwent MRI T1 image acquisition as well as testing in the Stockings of Cambridge (SOC) task to measure planning ability. First, group comparison of SOC measures were performed. Then, correlation voxel-based morphometry analyses were done between gray matter degeneration and SOC performance in the HD group.
Accuracy and efficiency planning scores correlated with gray matter density in right lingual gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, and paracingulate gyrus.
Our results suggest that planning deficits exhibited by early HD-subjects are related to occipital and temporal cortical degeneration in addition to the frontal areas deterioration.
亨廷顿病（HD）的早期患者在运动改变开始出现之前就已经表现出计划缺陷。一般来说，计划能力与大脑前区的功能有关，如内侧前额叶皮质。然而，早期 HD 的神经病理学涉及枕叶和顶叶皮质的明显萎缩，这表明更靠后的区域也可能与这些计划缺陷有关。
在早期临床阶段确定与 HD 患者计划缺陷相关的大脑区域。
招募了 22 名经基因证实有早期临床表现的 HD 患者和 20 名健康受试者。所有参与者都接受了 MRI T1 图像采集以及剑桥存货测试（SOC）任务的测试，以衡量计划能力。首先，对 SOC 指标进行了组间比较。然后，在 HD 组中进行了与 SOC 表现相关的基于体素的形态计量学分析。
准确性和效率规划评分与右侧舌回、颞中回、前扣带回和旁扣带回的灰质密度相关。
我们的结果表明，早期 HD 患者表现出的计划缺陷与额叶区域的恶化有关，除了与额前区域的退化有关，还与枕叶和颞叶皮质的退化有关。
