Brain Volume Linked to Subjective Performance

THURSDAY, Oct. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Patients experiencing subjective cognitive failures (SCF) are noted to have lower hippocampal volumes independent of cognitive function and white matter lesions (WML), which may serve as an early marker for the development of diseases characterized by memory loss, according to a report in the Oct.7 issue of Neurology.

A.G.W. van Norden, M.D., of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and colleagues performed a prospective cohort study examining the relationship between SCF and hippocampal volume among 503 elderly patients without dementia, but with WML, enrolled in the Radboud University Nijmegen Diffusion tensor and MRI Cohort study. All patients underwent FLAIR and T1 MRI scanning with manual volumetric measures of hippocampus and WML. SCF was rated using the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire and cognitive function was assessed using a cognitive screening battery.

Subjects with SCF had significantly lower hippocampal volumes than those without SCF, and this relationship was independent of WML, the investigators found. As hippocampal volume decreased, severity of SCF increased across all spectrums of cognitive performance, the researchers report.

"We found that SCF were associated with lower hippocampal volume, independent of depressive symptoms and WML volume, in elderly individuals with incidental WML," the authors conclude. "Importantly, the relation between lower hippocampal volume and SCF and subjective memory failures was demonstrated in subjects with good objective performance. This may provide an underlying pathoanatomic explanation for the frequently observed SCF and may therefore function as an early marker for the development of diseases characterized by memory loss, including Alzheimer's disease and its attendant neuropathologic substrates such as hippocampal atrophy."

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