Mei X, Zou CJ, Hu J, Liu XL, Zheng CY, Zhou DS. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy in elderly patients with four types of dementia.
World J Psychiatry 2023;
13:203-214. [PMID:
37303929 PMCID:
PMC10251357 DOI:
10.5498/wjp.v13.i5.203]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Revised: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is commonly used to study human brain function by measuring the hemodynamic signals originating from cortical activation and provides a new noninvasive detection method for identifying dementia.
AIM
To investigate the fNIRS imaging technique and its clinical application in differential diagnosis of subtype dementias including frontotemporal lobe dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
METHODS
Four patients with different types of dementia were examined with fNIRS during two tasks and a resting state. We adopted the verbal fluency task, working memory task and resting state task. Each patient was compared on the same task. We conducted and analyzed the fNIRS data using a general linear model and Pearson’s correlation analysis.
RESULTS
Compared with other types of dementias, fNIRS showed the left frontotemporal and prefrontal lobes to be poorly activated during the verbal fluency task in frontotemporal dementia. In Lewy body dementia, severe asymmetry of prefrontal lobes appeared during both verbal fluency and working memory tasks, and the patient had low functional connectivity during a resting state. In PDD, the patient’s prefrontal cortex showed lower excitability than the temporal lobe during the verbal fluency task, while the prefrontal cortex showed higher excitability during the working memory task. The patient with AD showed poor prefrontal and temporal activation during the working memory task, and more activation of frontopolar instead of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
CONCLUSION
Different hemodynamic characteristics of four types of dementia (as seen by fNIRS imaging) provides evidence that fNIRS can serve as a potential tool for the diagnosis between dementia subtypes.
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