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Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 20|pp 9188—9208

Narrative impairment, white matter damage and CSF biomarkers in the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum

Claudia Drummond1,2,3, Gabriel Coutinho3,4, Marina Carneiro Monteiro1, Naima Assuncao1,3, Alina Teldeschi1, Andrea Silveira de Souza1, Natalia Oliveira1, Ivanei Bramati1, Felipe Kenji Sudo1, Bart Vanderboght1, Carlos Otavio Brandao5, Rochele Paz Fonseca6, Ricardo de Oliveira-Souza1, Jorge Moll1, Paulo Mattos1,3,7, Fernanda Tovar-Moll1,3
  • 1Department of Neuroscience, D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 2Department of Speech and Hearing Pathology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 3Graduate Program in Morphological Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 4Department of Psychology, Celso Lisboa University Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 5Neurolife – Cerebrospinal Fluid Specialized Laboratory, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 6Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, Pontificial Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • 7Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Received: April 16, 2019Accepted: October 21, 2019Published: October 31, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102391

Copyright © 2019 Drummond et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Narrative discourse (ND) refers to one’s ability to verbally reproduce a sequence of temporally and logically-linked events. Impairments in ND may occur in subjects with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but correlates across this function, neuroimaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers remain understudied.

Objectives: We sought to measure correlates among ND, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) indexes and AD CSF biomarkers in patients within the AD spectrum.

Results: Groups differed in narrative production (NProd) and comprehension. aMCI and AD presented poorer inference abilities than controls. AD subjects were more impaired than controls and aMCI regarding WB (p<0.01). ROIs DTI assessment distinguished the three groups. Mean Diffusivity (MD) in the uncinate, bilateral parahippocampal cingulate and left inferior occipitofrontal fasciculi negatively correlated with NProd. Changes in specific tracts correlated with T-tau/Aβ1-42 ratio in CSF.

Conclusions: AD and aMCI patients presented more ND impairments than controls. Those findings were associated with changes in ventral language-associated and in the inferior parahippocampal pathways. The latest were correlated with biomarkers’ levels in the CSF.

Methods: AD (N=14), aMCI (N=31) and Control (N=39) groups were compared for whole brain (WB) and regions of interest (ROI) DTI parameters, ND and AD CSF biomarkers.