The relationship between neuropsychiatric symptoms and default-mode network connectivity in alzheimer’s disease

초록

Objective Neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia are prevalent and extremely burdening for the patient and caregivers, but the un-derlying mechanism of these symptoms has not been investigated. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between neuropsy-chiatric symptoms and default-mode functional connectivity in Alzheimer’s disease. Methods Neuropsychiatric symptoms were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on seventy patients with Alzheimer’s disease during rest. We conducted a seed-based functional connectivity analysis to identify anterior and posterior default-mode networks (DMN). Seeds were the medial prefrontal cortex (Montreal Neurological Institute 12, 51, 36; seed radius=3 mm) for the anterior DMN and the precuneus (Montreal Neurological Institute-6,-63, 27; seed radius=3 mm) for the posterior DMN We then correlated the scores on neuropsychiatric inventory syndromes (apathy, hyperactivity, affective, and psychosis syndrome) with maps of connectivity in the default-mode network. Results There was a significant correlation between decreased connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex of the anterior default-mode network and hyperactivity (agitation, irritability, aberrant motor behavior, euphoria, and disinhibition) syndrome (p<0.05, family wise error cluster-level corrected). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that hyperactivity syndrome is related to hypoconnected default-mode network in Alzheimer’s disease. This finding suggests that specific network alterations are associated with certain neuropsychiatric syndromes. © 2020 Korean Neuropsychiatric Association.

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