Deterioration of Abstract Reasoning Ability in MCI and Alzheimer's Disease: Correlation with Local Gray Matter Volume Loss Using DARTEL VBM Analysis

Takashi Yoshiura¹, Akio Hiwatashi¹, Koji Yamashita¹, Hironori Kamano¹, Yukihisa Takayama¹, Eiki Nagao¹, Tuvshinjargal Dashjamts¹, Hiroshi Honda¹

We estimated brain regions whose damages are responsible for the deterioration in abstract reasoning ability measured by Ravenfs colored progressive matrices (CPM) in 37 patients with Alzheimerfs disease (AD) (n=19) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n=18) using VBM with non-linear registration based on DARTEL algorithm. A multiple regression analysis was used to map the regions where gray matter volumes were correlated with CPM scores. Significant correlations were seen in 14 regions with the strongest correlation in the left middle frontal gyrus. Results suggested that damages of multiple regions are responsible for deterioration of abstract reasoning ability in AD and MCI.