[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

compared to the controls. After controlling for baseline Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE)
scores, greater longitudinal increases in pattern expression in the AD patients were associated
with greater declines in MMSE performance over the twelve month period (p ≤ 0.003) and this
association was not observed in the controls. Together, the findings indicate a regionally
distributed MRI gray matter pattern associated with AD that shows a progression of gray matter
reductions over 12 months which is not observed in healthy elderly and which is associated with
the rate of cognitive decline in the AD patients. SSM network analysis with MRI longitudinal
VBM may aid in tracking the progression of AD and potentially assist in evaluating treatments
and prevention therapies.
Disclosures: K.D. Hanson, None; K.L. Bergfield, None; K. Chen, None; E.M. Reiman,
None; M.A. Bernstein, None; J. Kornak, None; D.J. Harvey, None; N.W. Schuff, None; P.M.
Thompson, None; M.W. Weiner, None; C.R. Jack, None; G.E. Alexander, None.
Poster
246. Alzheimer's Imaging and Biomarkers II
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 246.11/Q3
Topic: C.01.o. Imaging and biomarkers
Support: Brain Research Center of the 21st Century Frontier Research Program funded by the
Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Korea: M103KV010021-03K2201-02130)
Title: Neural correlate of cognitive reserve: The role of precuneus in protecting the dementias
Authors: *J. CHEY 1 , M. J. KIM 2 , K.-M. SHIN 1 , M. SHIN 1 ;
1 Dept Psychol, Seoul Natl. Univ., Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2 Dept Psychological and Brain Sci.,
Dartmouth Col., Hanover, NH
Abstract: The concept of cognitive reserve has been proposed to explain the discrepancy
between the neuropathology and the clinical symptoms of people with the Alzheimer disease.
Individuals with superior IQ develop dementia symptoms later on in the illness (Snowdon et al.,
1996), and low education has been repeatedly observed as a risk for Alzheimer‟s disease and
dementia in general (Del Ser et al., 1999). It has been proposed that individuals with greater
cognitive reserve can withstand the effects of neurodegenerative processes, and would delay the
clinical manifestation of dementia, while individuals with smaller cognitive reserve would
manifest the symptoms very early in the disease process (Stern, 2002.)
The neural correlate of this cognitive reserve has been speculated to be the whole brain size or
the general synaptic density of the brain (Katzman et al., 1988; Mori et al., 1997), but no specific