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Abstract #2610

HIV alters brain activation during semantic memory processing demands

Joanna Poweska1, Anna Rita Egbert2, Marta Sobańska1, Agnieszka Pluta1,3, Tomasz Wolak3, Łukasz Okruszek1, Natalia Gawron1, Bogna Szymańska-Kotwica4, Ewa Firląg-Burkacka4, Andrzej Horban4, Przemysław Bieńkowski5, Halina Sienkiewicz-Jarosz6, Anna Ścińska-Bieńkowska6, Robert Bornstein7, Stephen Rao8, and Emilia Łojek1

1University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, 2University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 3Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, World Hearing Center, Kajetany, Nadarzyn, Poland, 4The Central Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Warsaw, Poland, 5Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, 6The Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland, 7The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States, 8The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

Memory and executive dysfunctions burden HIV patients even in the highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) era. The neurobiological correlates of these cognitive symptoms remain unclear limiting development of targeted treatment options. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a promising route to estimate neural signature of HIV-related neurocognitive decline. We examined brain activity in HIV+/HAART+ vs. healthy individuals during execution of semantic memory task. Results show that famous names induce lower activation in left caudate, right thalamus and left middle occipital gyrus in HIV+ vs. healthy group, despite lack of behavioral differences. Such hypoactivation suggests brain functional reorganization in HIV+/HAART+ patients.

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