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 Freesurfer
1,
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.