Perceptual and motor abilities in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease: a preliminary study

in Archives of Gerontology & Geriatrics (2012), 54

Deficits in inhibitory abilities are frequently observed in normal aging and Alzheimer disease (AD). However, few studies have explored the generality of these deficits in a single group of participants ... [more ▼]

Deficits in inhibitory abilities are frequently observed in normal aging and Alzheimer disease (AD). However, few studies have explored the generality of these deficits in a single group of participants. A battery of tasks assessing perceptual and motor inhibitory functioning was administered to young and older healthy participants (Study 1), as well as to mild Alzheimer patients (Study 2). Results did not agree with a selective impairment of motor or perceptual inhibition in either AD or normal aging but rather suggest that a decrease in cognitive resources available in working memory could explain inhibitory performance both in normal aging and AD. [less ▲]

The neural basis of semantic and episodic forms of self-knowledge: insights from functional neuroimaging

in Lopez-Larrea, Carlos (Ed.) Sensing in nature (2012)

Diagnostic de la maladie d’Alzheimer: étude comparative du pouvoir discriminant de différentes tâches de mémoire épisodique

Poster (2011, December 02)

Performance evaluation of the General Electric eXplore CT 120 micro-CT using the vmCT phantom.

in Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section A (2011), 648

The eXplore CT 120 is the latest generation micro-CT from General Electric. It is equipped with a high power tube and a flat panel detector. It allows high resolution and high contrast fast CT scanning of ... [more ▼]

The eXplore CT 120 is the latest generation micro-CT from General Electric. It is equipped with a high power tube and a flat panel detector. It allows high resolution and high contrast fast CT scanning of small animals. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the eXplore CT 120 with the one of the eXplore Ultra, its predecessor for which the methodology using the vmCT phantom was already described [1]. The phantom was imaged using typical rat (fast scan or F) or mouse (in vivo bone scan or H) scanning protocols. With the slanted edge method, a 10% modulation transfer function (MTF) was observed at 4.4 (F) and 3.9-4.4 (H) mm-1 corresponding to 114 μm resolution. A fairly larger MTF was obtained with the coil method with the MTF for the thinnest coil (3.3 mm-1 ) equal to 0.32 (F) and 0.34 (H). The geometric accuracy was better than 0.3%. There was a highly linear (R2 > 0.999) relationship between measured and expected CT numbers for both the CT number accuracy and linearity sections of the phantom. A cupping effect was clearly seen on the uniform slices and the uniformity-to-noise ratio ranged from 0.52 (F) to 0.89 (H). The air CT number depended on the amount of polycarbonate surrounding the area where it was measured: a difference as high as approximately 200 HU was observed. This hindered the calibration of this scanner in HU. This is likely due to the absence of corrections for beam hardening and scatter in the reconstruction software. However in view of the high linearity of the system, the implementation of these corrections would allow a good quality calibration of the scanner in HU. In conclusion, the eXplore CT 120 achieved a better spatial resolution than the eXplore Ultra (based on previously reported specifications) and future software developments to include beam hardening and scatter corrections will make the new generation CT scanner even more promising. [less ▲]

NEMA NU4-2008 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FOR THE MICROPET FOCUS 120 AND IODINE-124

Poster (2011, May 29)

Reliability in kinetic modeling of [18F]fallypride binding in the mouse brain: application of test-retest method

Poster (2011, May)

[18F]fallypride binding in the mouse brain: test-retest and effects of registration

Conference (2011, January 17)

The quantification of in vivo receptor kinetics with PET tracer experiments is an intricate and challenging problem especially for small animals such as rats and mice. A test-retest scan is usually set up ... [more ▼]

The quantification of in vivo receptor kinetics with PET tracer experiments is an intricate and challenging problem especially for small animals such as rats and mice. A test-retest scan is usually set up in order to confirm an observed experimental effect or to examine the reliability of the experiment design. Inadequate processing of the image data may also mask small effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of image registration on [18F]fallypride binding potentials calculated from PET mouse test-retest data. Sub-optimal registration affected the quantification of in vivo receptor kinetics with [18F]fallypride. The absence of anatomical information in the [18F]fallypride image and the lack of a homogeneous tracer distribution, even during the earlier minutes of the scan, lead to erroneous automatic registration. A FDG scan after each [18F]fallypride test could improve registration as FDG provides a more homogeneous brain image. Variability in the data could also result from stress induced by anaesthesia or the experimental environment. [less ▲]

La demence chez le patient parkinsonien: facteurs de risque, diagnostic et traitement.

in Revue Médicale de Liège (2011), 66(2), 75-81

Aside from limb tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and gait disturbances, Parkinson's disease (PD) is also characterized by non-motor symptoms. A cognitive decline can occur early in the disease course and ... [more ▼]

Aside from limb tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and gait disturbances, Parkinson's disease (PD) is also characterized by non-motor symptoms. A cognitive decline can occur early in the disease course and undoubtedly impact of the patient's quality of life. Dementia affects 80% of patients 20 years after disease onset but a small subgroup of patients remain free of dementia even after decades with PD. Risk factors and diagnosis of dementia can be easily assessed using bed-side clinical instruments. Advances in genetics and imagery will allow improving the diagnosis and therapeutic strategy dementia in Parkinson's disease. [less ▲]

Dissociation between controlled and automatic processes in the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia

in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease [=JAD] (2011), 22(3), 897-907

A decline of cognitive functioning affecting several cognitive domains was frequently reported in patients with frontotemporal dementia. We were interested in determining if these deficits can be ... [more ▼]

A decline of cognitive functioning affecting several cognitive domains was frequently reported in patients with frontotemporal dementia. We were interested in determining if these deficits can be interpreted as reflecting an impairment of controlled cognitive processes by using an assessment tool specifically developed to explore the distinction between automatic and controlled processes, namely the process dissociation procedure (PDP) developed by Jacoby [1]. The PDP was applied to a word stem completion task to determine the contribution of automatic and controlled processes to episodic memory performance and was administered to a group of 12 patients with the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) and 20 control subjects (CS). Bv-FTD patients obtained a lower performance than CS for the estimates of controlled processes, but no group differences was observed for estimates of automatic processes. The between-groups comparison of the estimates of controlled and automatic processes showed a larger contribution of automatic processes to performance in bv-FTD, while a slightly more important contribution of controlled processes was observed in control subjects. These results are clearly indicative of an alteration of controlled memory processes in bv-FTD. [less ▲]

Is brain activity during a Stroop inhibitory task modulated by the kind of cognitive control required?

Conference (2011)

Performance on the Stroop task is associated to a large antero-posterior cerebral network involving notably the anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In this study, we used a mixed-BOLD ... [more ▼]

Performance on the Stroop task is associated to a large antero-posterior cerebral network involving notably the anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In this study, we used a mixed-BOLD-fMRI design (N=25) to determine the neural substrates of inhibitory functioning in a Stroop task according to contextual information. Consequently, two task-contexts were created: (1) congruent context with a majority of facilitator items, (2) non-congruent context with mainly interfering items. Based on the dual cognitive control model, we postulated that the non-congruent blocks will involve proactive control, which is anticipatory, sustained, and involved when a large number of interfering items are successively presented. On the contrary, congruent blocks were assumed to involve reactive control, which occurs when few interfering items are presented, and just after the presentation of these items only. On this basis, we hypothesized that the kind of cognitive control modulates cerebral activity associated to inhibitory functioning. For behavioral data, we obtained faster response times for interfering items in the non-congruent vs. congruent condition, indicating proactive control specific to the congruent condition only. Functional neuro-imaging data showed an increased transient activity for interfering vs neutral items in a fronto-parietal network more important in the congruent than in the neutral condition. A similar contrast in the non-congruent condition showed no significant brain activity at the statistical threshold used. These data indicate the existence of a modulation of the cerebral areas associated to inhibitory functioning according to the kind of cognitive control necessary to perform the task. [less ▲]