Frontal and temporal lobe correlates of verbal learning and memory in aMCI and suspected Alzheimer’s disease dementia

ABSTRACT

Alzheimer’s disease is primarily known for deficits in learning and retaining new information. This has long been associated with pathological changes in the mesial temporal lobes. The role of the frontal lobes in memory in Alzheimer’s disease is less well understood. In this study, we examined the role of the frontal lobes in learning, recognition, and retention of new verbal information, as well as the presence of specific errors (i.e., intrusions and false-positive errors). Participants included one hundred sixty-seven patients clinically diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or suspected Alzheimer’s disease dementia who were administered the California Verbal Learning Test and completed high-resolution MRI. We confirmed the role of the mesial temporal lobes in learning and retention, including the volumes of the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and parahippocampal gyrus. In addition, false-positive errors were associated with all volumes of the mesial temporal lobes and widespread areas within the frontal lobes. Errors of intrusion were related to the supplementary motor cortex and hippocampus. Most importantly, the mesial temporal lobes interacted with the frontal lobes for learning, recognition, and memory errors. Lower volumes in both regions explained more performance variance than any single structure. This study supports the interaction of the frontal lobes with the temporal lobes in many aspects of memory in Alzheimer’s disease.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• mild cognitive impairment
• frontal lobe
• mesial temporal lobe
• memory

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the patients, families, and staff of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute Memory Health Clinic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Contributor roles taxonomy (CRediT)

Cierra M. Keith: conceptualization, investigation, original draft, review & editing

Marc W. Haut: conceptualization, investigation, analysis, original draft

Rashi I. Mehta: investigation, original draft, review & editing

Kirk Wilhelmsen: investigation, analysis, review & editing

Mark Miller: review & editing

Melanie Ward: review & editing

R. Osvaldo Navia: review & editing

Katharine Lindberg: data curation

Michelle Coleman: analysis, data curation

William T. McCuddy: data curation

Gerard Deib: investigation

Angelo Giolzetti: review & editing

Pierre-François D’Haese: software, data curation, analysis, review and editing