INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster

Poster Session 06 Program Schedule

02/15/2024
04:00 pm - 05:15 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)

Poster Session 06: Aging | MCI | Neurodegenerative Disease - PART 2


Final Abstract #42

Executive Function and Information Processing Speed Deficits Relate to Temporal Cortical Volumes in Older Adults Living with HIV: Comparison to Parkinson’s Disease and Normal Aging

Eva Muller-Oehring, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Rosemary Fama, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Taylor Levine, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center, Las Vegas, United States
Kathleen Poston, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Edith Sullivan, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Stephanie Sassoon, SRI International, Menlo Park, United States
Helen Bronte-Stewart, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Kilian Pohl, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
Adolf Pfefferbaum, SRI International, Menlo Park, United States
Tilman Schulte, SRI International, Menlo Park, United States

Category: Aging

Keyword 1: executive functions
Keyword 2: HIV/AIDS
Keyword 3: neuroimaging: structural

Objective:

With advances in antiretroviral pharmacotherapy, people living with HIV (PLWH) are now reaching normal life expectancies, although the prevalence of mild to moderate cognitive impairment remains high. Executive function (EF) and information processing speed (IPS) deficits are among the most notable cognitive deficits in PLWH and have been associated with frontally based networks, known to be compromised in HIV infection. Here, we examined frontal and extra-frontal cortical volumes in relation to EF and IPS deficits in PLWH and individuals with Parkinson’s disease, conditions that affect frontal-striatal networks.

Participants and Methods:

Participants in this cross-sectional study included 42 PLWH (age 47-78 years), 41 individuals with treated mild-to-moderate PD (age 49-79 years), and 37 controls (CTRL; age 45-77 years). A composite EF score was derived from the Stroop Color-Word Interference and Digit Span Backwards scores; a composite IPS score was derived from the Stroop Color Naming and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (oral administration) scores. All scores were age- and education-corrected based on CTRL performance and expressed as Z-scores. Regional brain volumes were calculated using MRI data and the SRI24 atlas to delineate cortical (frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital) and subregional cortical volumes, which were age- and intracranial-volume corrected based on 238 controls (19-86 years old).

Results:

The PLWH and PD groups had lower EF scores than the CTRL group and showed a graded effect (CRTL>PD>PLWH). The PLWH, but not the PD, group had lower IPS scores than the CTRL group. Regarding brain volumes, PLWH had smaller frontal, temporal, and parietal volumes than the CTRL group. The PD group had smaller occipital brain volume than the CTRL and PLWH groups and smaller parietal brain volume than the CTRL group. In PLWH, smaller frontal volumes correlated with lower current CD4 count. In PD, smaller occipital volumes were associated with longer time since diagnosis.

Correlational analyses were subject to Holm-Bonferroni sequential correction for 8 comparisons. Neither EF nor IPS scores correlated with total frontal volumes in either the PLWH or PD group. By contrast, EF and IPS scores correlated with smaller total temporal volumes in PLWH, and the EF-temporal correlations were significantly stronger in the PLWH than the PD group. Secondary analyses examining regional lobar volumes indicated that in PLWH, EF scores correlated with each temporal subregion (superior, middle, inferior), whereas IPS scores were selectively related to inferior temporal volumes. By contrast, in the PD group, only EF scores were related to inferior frontal volumes.

Conclusions:

Despite widespread regional cortical volume shrinkage in both PLWH and PD, the pattern of brain structure-function relations differed by diagnosis. In PLWH, poorer scores in EF and IPS were related to the extent of temporal lobe volume shrinkage, with IPS scores related selectively to inferior temporal volumes. In PD, only EF levels related to inferior frontal volumes. These results highlight the relevance of the structural integrity of the temporal lobe to higher order cognitive processes in general and to the deficit profile of PLWH in particular.

Support: AG081144, NS13210101, NS115114, AA010723, AA017347, MH113406, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research