Laura
Serra1, Roberta Perri2, Mara Cercignani1,
Barbara Span1,3, Lucia Fadda2,4, Camillo Marra5,
Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo2,4, Carlo Caltagirone2,4,
Marco Bozzali1
1Neuroimaging
laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy; 2Department
of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Roma,
Italy; 3Direzione Scientifica, , IRCCS Centro Neurolesi
Bonino-Pulejo, Messina, Italy; 4Department of Neuroscience,
University of Rome Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy; 5Institute of
Neurology, Universit Cattolica, Roma, Italy
Psychiatric
symptoms (BPSD) are frequently observed in the clinical course of Alzheimers
disease (AD). We used voxel-based morphometry
to identify, in a large cohort patients with AD at different clinical
stages, which BPSD are more significantly associated with regional gray
matter degeneration. Correlation analyses showed an association between
disinhibition and GM volumes in the cingulate gyrus bilaterally, and in the
right middle frontal gyrus, and between delusions and GM volume of the right hippocampus and
parahippocampal gyrus, and of the right middle frontal gyrus. These findings
indicate that BPSD are likely part of
the clinical features of AD.