Influences of lobar gray matter and white matter lesion load on cognition and mood

Mueller, Susanne G.; Mack, Wendy J.; Mungas, Dan; Kramer, Joel H.; Cardenas-Nicolson, Valerie; Lavretsky, Helen; Greene, Maxwell; Schuff, Norbert; Chui, Helena C.; Weiner, Michael W.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.08.002

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 181, Issue 2 , Pages 90-96, 28 February 2010

Influences of lobar gray matter and white matter lesion load on cognition and mood

Susanne G. Mueller
- Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VAMC/University of California San Francisco, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA
- Corresponding author. Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Medical Center, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA. Tel.: +1 415 221 4810x2538; fax: +1 415 668 2864.
Wendy J. Mack
- Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA
Dan Mungas
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, 4860 Y Street, Suite 3700, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA
Joel H. Kramer
- Department of Neurology, San Francisco Medical Center, University of California, 905 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA. 94143, USA
Valerie Cardenas-Nicolson
- Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VAMC/University of California San Francisco, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA
Helen Lavretsky
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, 760 Westwood Plaza, 37-372A, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
Maxwell Greene
- Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VAMC/University of California San Francisco, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA
Norbert Schuff
- Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VAMC/University of California San Francisco, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA
Helena C. Chui
- Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, 1510 San Pablo Street, Suite 618, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
Michael W. Weiner
- Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VAMC/University of California San Francisco, 4150 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA

Received 7 October 2008; received in revised form 30 March 2009; accepted 4 August 2009.

Abstract

Depressed mood is a frequent co-morbidity of dementia suggesting that they might share a common neuropathological substrate. Gray matter (GM) atrophy and white matter lesions (WML) have been described in both conditions. Our aims were to determine the relationship of GM and WML with cognition and depressed mood in the same population. Structural brain images were obtained from 42 controls, 20 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 32 subjects with cognitive impairment/dementia due to subcortical cerebrovascular disease (vascCIND/IVD). Images were segmented to obtain lobar GM, white matter and WML volumes. Lobar WML had a negative effect on GM in all lobes in controls, on frontal, parietal and occipital GM in AD and on frontal GM in vascCIND/IVD. Frontal, temporal and hippocampal GM were associated with cognitive functions and frontal WML load with depressed mood. Cognitive function is associated with GM atrophy and depressed mood is associated with frontal WML. This indicates that although both often occur together, depressed mood and cognitive impairment have different pathological correlates.

Keywords: White matter lesion, Gray matter atrophy, Depression, Mood, Cognition, MRI