Small brain cortex may mean early dementia

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By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
Size may matter in predicting the chance for Alzheimer’s disease as new research suggests an association between the size of various brain regions and the risk for very early Alzheimer’s disease.

The study suggests people with smaller regions of the brain’s cortex may be at risk.

Researchers have published their findings in the online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“The ability to identify people who are not showing memory problems and other symptoms but may be at a higher risk for cognitive decline is a very important step toward developing new ways for doctors to detect Alzheimer’s disease,” said Susan Resnick, Ph.D.

For the study, researchers used brain scans to measure the thickness of regions of the brain’s cortex in 159 people free of dementia with an average age of 76.

The brain regions were chosen based on prior studies showing that they shrink in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia.

Of the 159 people, 19 were classified as at high risk for having early Alzheimer’s disease due to smaller size of particular regions known to be vulnerable to Alzheimer’s in the brain’s cortex, 116 were classified as average risk and 24 as low risk.

Investigators tested subjects at the beginning of the study and over the next three years. Researchers administered tests that measured memory, problem solving and ability to plan and pay attention.

The study found that 21 percent of those at high risk experienced cognitive decline during three years of follow-up after the MRI scan, compared to seven percent of those at average risk and none of those at low risk.

“Further research is needed on how using MRI scans to measure the size of different brain regions in combination with other tests may help identify people at the greatest risk of developing early Alzheimer’s as early as possible,” said study author Bradford Dickerson, MD.

Researchers also discovered that 60 percent of the group considered most at risk for early Alzheimer’s disease had abnormal levels of proteins associated with the disease in cerebrospinal fluid — which is another marker for the disease — compared to 36 percent of those at average risk and 19 percent of those at low risk.

Source: American Academy of Neurology