Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE 68010, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska - Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Mar 10;33(6):3181-3192. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhac268.
Adults with HIV frequently develop a form of mild cognitive impairment known as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND), but presumably cognitive decline in older persons with HIV could also be attributable to Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, distinguishing these two conditions in individual patients is exceedingly difficult, as the distinct neural and neuropsychological features are poorly understood and most studies to date have only investigated HAND or AD spectrum (ADS) disorders in isolation. The current study examined the neural dynamics underlying visuospatial processing using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 31 biomarker-confirmed patients on the ADS, 26 older participants who met criteria for HAND, and 31 older cognitively normal controls. MEG data were examined in the time-frequency domain, and a data-driven approach was utilized to identify the neural dynamics underlying visuospatial processing. Both clinical groups (ADS/HAND) were significantly less accurate than controls on the task and exhibited stronger prefrontal theta oscillations compared to controls. Regarding disease-specific alterations, those with HAND exhibited stronger alpha oscillations than those on the ADS in frontoparietal and temporal cortices. These results indicate both common and unique neurophysiological alterations among those with ADS disorders and HAND in regions serving visuospatial processing and suggest the underlying neuropathological features are at least partially distinct.
HIV 感染者常发生一种称为 HIV 相关认知障碍（HAND）的轻度认知障碍，但 HIV 老年患者的认知衰退也可能归因于阿尔茨海默病（AD）。然而，在个体患者中区分这两种情况极其困难，因为其独特的神经和神经心理学特征尚未被充分理解，而且迄今为止大多数研究仅单独调查了 HAND 或 AD 谱（ADS）障碍。本研究使用脑磁图（MEG）在 31 名经生物标志物确认的 ADS 患者、26 名符合 HAND 标准的老年参与者和 31 名认知正常的老年对照组中检查了视觉空间处理的神经动力学。对 MEG 数据进行了时频域分析，并采用数据驱动方法来识别视觉空间处理的神经动力学。与对照组相比，这两个临床组（ADS/HAND）在任务中的准确性明显较低，并且前额叶 theta 振荡比对照组更强。关于疾病特异性改变，与 ADS 相比，HAND 患者在前顶叶和颞叶皮质中表现出更强的 alpha 振荡。这些结果表明，在视觉空间处理相关区域中，ADS 障碍和 HAND 患者既有共同的也有独特的神经生理改变，并提示潜在的神经病理学特征至少部分不同。
