Neuropsychological Measures of Parietal Lobe Thickness
Christopher Bird1, Sarah Banks1, and Dietmar Cordes1

1Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center For Brain Health, Las Vegas, NV, United States

Synopsis

We report relationships between cortical thickness as assessed with Freesurfer, and performance on three tests: Judgment of Line Orientation (JOLO), Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Copy Trial (BVMT-C), and Block Design (BD) in 122 consecutive memory clinic patients. Geometric construction tests (BD) was more sensitive to right sided thickness, while judgment of angles and simple construction of shapes was more sensitive to the left parietal lobe.

Purpose

While various neuropsychological tests of visuospatial and visuoconstructional function are administered in clinic routinely, the neural correlates of these tests are not strongly understood. They are generally considered assays of parietal function mainly, but also to involve a widespread network of region. Here we take three standard tests of visuospatial function and assess their relationship with (a) lobar cortical thickness in each hemisphere, and (b) regional cortical thickness within the parietal lobes.

Methods

We sampled ADNI MP-RAGE images from 122 consecutive clinic patients (58 female, mean age 70.22 years, SD=10.6 years; mean years of education 14.8 years, SD=2.8 years). All images were acquired with a 3T Siemens Verio with a 1.2mm isometric voxel size, repetition time 2300ms, echo time 2.98ms, and 9° flip angle. We report relationships between cortical thickness as assessed with Freesurfer1, and performance on three tests: Judgment of Line Orientation (JOLO)2, Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Copy Trial (BVMT-C)3, and Block Design (BD)4. Using forward entry linear regression models, one for each hemisphere and each test, we initially assessed which lobe's overall cortical thickness primarily correlates with performance. We then looked at regional cortical thickness with the relevant hemisphere’s parietal lobe for each test.

Results

JOLO and BVMT-C both primarily related to left parietal and right temporal thickness. BD related to right parietal and left frontal. Within these hemispheres, all tests correlated most with thickness of the inferior parietal region.

Discussion

Neuropsychological tests of visuospatial function relate strongly with parietal lobe thickness, specifically the inferior parietal region. It is of interest that a geometric construction tests (BD) was more sensitive to right sided thickness, while judgment of angles and simple construction of shapes was more sensitive to the left parietal lobe. Further understanding of the relationships between clinical tests and the underlying neuroanatomy is warranted.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

1. Freesurfer version 6.0 beta; available at: http://surfer.nmr.harvard.edu

2. Steck PH. A revision of A. L. Benton’s Visual Retention Test (BVRT) in two parallel forms. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2005, 20:409-416.

3. Benedict RHB, Schretlen D, Groninger L, Dobraski M, Shpritz B. Revision of the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test: Studies of normal performance, reliability, and validity. Psychological Assessment, Vol 8(2), Jun 1996, 145-153.

4. Wechsler D. (2008). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–FourthEdition. San Antonio, TX: Pearson.

Figures

Correlations between thickness of each parietal lobe and BVMT-C. In regression models, the left parietal lobe thickness was a better predictor of performance on BVMT-C

Correlations between thickness of each parietal lobe and JOLO. In regression models, the left parietal lobe thickness was a better predictor of performance on JOLO

Correlations between thickness of each parietal lobe and BD raw score. In regression models, the right parietal lobe thickness was a better predictor of performance on BD



Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 24 (2016)
1252