Brain correlates of memory dysfunction in alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome

Abstract

Objectives-To investigate the relation between anterograde amnesia and atrophy of brain structures involved in memory processing in alcoholic KorsakoV's syndrome. Methods-The volume of brain structures involved in memory processing was measured with MRI from 13 subjects with KorsakoV's syndrome, 13 subjects with chronic alcoholism without KorsakoV's syndrome, and 13 control subjects. The brain structures analysed were the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus, the mamillary bodies, the third ventricle, and the thalamus. Brain volumes were correlated with the delayed recall of a verbal learning test. Results-Compared with subjects with chronic alcoholism and control subjects, subjects with KorsakoV's syndrome had a reduced volume of the hippocampus, the mamillary bodies, and the thalamus, and enlargement of the third ventricle. The impairment of delayed recall correlated with the volume of the third ventricle (r=−0.55, p=0.05) in the KorsakoV group. Conclusions-Anterograde amnesia in alcoholic KorsakoV's syndrome is associated with atrophy of the nuclei in the midline of the thalamus, but not with atrophy of the mamillary bodies, the hippocampus, or the parahippocampal gyrus. (J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1999;67:774-778)

The relation between global and limbic brain volumes on MRI and cognitive performance in healthy individuals across the age range

“…In all cases, demarcation criteria (see below) were determined by consulting anatomical atlases [10,28]. The criteria that were applied for measurement are described in detail elsewhere [39]. In short, the hippocampus was measured every other slice in both hemispheres (range of measurements: 8 -13) and included the hippocampus proper, dentate gyrus, alveus, and subiculum.…”

“…Based upon what is known from patient studies (e.g. [17,33,38,39]), it was expected that reductions in total brain volume would be related to a decline in performance on global cognitive tests measuring speed of mental processing, whereas atrophy of limbic structures (hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and mamillary bodies; and third ventricle as an index for the dorsomedial thalamus [19]) would be specifically associated with a deterioration on memory tests. We found a somewhat different pattern.…”

“…Alzheimer's disease and Korsakoff's syndrome) have demonstrated that damage to specific brain structures is indeed related to deterioration of cognitive functions. In these studies memory impairment is often associated with atrophy of limbic structures (including hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus [17], thalamus [38], or third ventricle [39], and mamillary bodies [36]), whereas global cognitive deficits such as slower mental processing is related to more general cerebral atrophy [33,35].…”

Automatic Segmentation of the Ventricular System from MR Images of the Human Brain

“…In a number of recently published studies (Rossi et al, 2000;Buchsbaum et al, 1997;Visser et al, 1999;Mu et al, 1999) the two steps are combined in a manual delineation procedure of (part of) the ventricular system. A frequently used solution of the segmentation problem is a two-step CSF/brain tissue separation, where thresholding or a more sophisticated (automated) algorithm is followed by interactive application of mathematical morphology operations to isolate the ventricles (Höhne and Hanson, 1992) or by manual outlining of the regions within which the ventricles' voxels are located (Woodruff et al, 1997;Blatter et al, 1997;Puri et al, 1999;Saeed et al, 1998;Leonard et al, 1999;Roy et al, 1998;Kitagaki et al, 1998;Coffey et al, 1998Coffey et al, , 1999Worth et al, 1998).…”

Environmental Factors and Limbic Vulnerability in Childhood Autism

“…Agents causing specific damage to the hippocampus include bacterial toxins [65,66] , vitamin B1 deficiency [67,68] , excess homocysteine [69,70] , hepatic encephalopathy [71] ; copper deficiency [72] , glucocorticoid excess or deficiency [73][74][75] , ethanol exposure [76] , oxygen deprivation [52,77] and irradiation [78] . Limbic damage, particularly in the hippocampus, is the primary outcome of challenge, while other brain regions often largely retain their integrity.…”