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Brain Advance Access originally published online on October 1, 2008
Brain 2009 132(2):383-391; doi:10.1093/brain/awn254
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The influence of parental history of Alzheimer's disease and apolipoprotein E {varepsilon}4 on the BOLD signal during recognition memory

Guofan Xu1,2,3, Donald G. Mclaren1,2, Michele L. Ries1,2, Michele E. Fitzgerald1,2, Barbara B. Bendlin1,2, Howard A. Rowley2,3, Mark A. Sager2, Craig Atwood1,2, Sanjay Asthana1,2 and Sterling C. Johnson1,2

1 Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, USA 2 Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA 3 Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

Correspondence to: Sterling C. Johnson, PhD, William S. Middleton Memorial (VA) Hospital, 2500 Overlook Terrace (11G), GRECC, Madison, WI 53705, USA E-mail: scj{at}medicine.wisc.edu

First-degree family history (FH) of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and the apolipoprotein E {varepsilon}4 allele (APOE4) are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease that may affect brain function prior to onset of clinical symptoms. In this functional MRI (fMRI) study, we used an episodic recognition task that required discrimination of previously viewed (PV) and novel (NV) faces to examine differences in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal due to risk factors in 74 middle-aged cognitively normal individuals. The group effects on this recognition task were tested with a 2 x 2 ANCOVA factorial design (+FH/–FH and +APOE4/–APOE4). There were significant APOE4 and FH effects in the left dorsal posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, where decreased risk resulted in greater activity during recollection. Recognition performance was positively correlated with BOLD signal in the left posterior hippocampus, parahippocampal–retrosplenial gyrus and left superior frontal cortex regardless of risk factors. To examine condition-specific group effects, both the PV and NV faces were tested further in separate 2 x 2 ANCOVAs. Both models revealed an APOE effect, with the –APOE4 group showing stronger signal than the +APOE4 group in anterior cingulate cortices, while a FH effect was found in the dorsal cuneus and medial frontal cortices with the –FH group showing stronger signal than the +FH group. Finally, interactions between APOE4 and FH effects were found bilaterally in the fusiform gyrus. These results suggest that risk factors and cognitive performance each influence brain activity during recognition. The findings lend further support to the idea that functional brain changes may begin far in advance of symptomatic Alzheimer's disease.

Key Words: Alzheimer's disease; risk factors; BOLD; event-related fMRI; d-prime

Abbreviations: AFNI, analysis of Functional NeuroImages; APOE4, apolipoprotein E {varepsilon}4 allele; BOLD, blood oxygen level dependent; d', d-prime; FAR, false alarm rate; FH, first-degree family history; fMRI, functional MRI; HR, hit rate; MTL, mesial temporal lobe; NV, novel; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; PV, previously viewed; SPM5, statistical parametric mapping software; TR, repetition time

Received May 19, 2008. Revised August 13, 2008. Accepted September 8, 2008.


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