Edukativni članak ACTA.FAC.MED.NAISS. 1999; 16(3), 180-185

THE APPLICATION OF MR-SPECTROSCOPY IN VIVO IN THE STUDY OF MEMORY DISORDERS

Vera Diklić
Institute of Neurology, Psychiatry and Mental Health, Clinical Center Novi Sad
Neuroimaging Center, Institute of Oncology, Sremska Kamenica

Neuroimaging techniques - positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) - have progressed to the point where they can reliably localize activations in different parts of the cortex and can dissociate activations originating from functionally distinct areas. Although the hippocampal formation has long been emphasized as the medial temporal lobe structure critical for memory, it now appears that the rhinal cortex (entorhinal and perirhinal), not the amygdala or hippocampus, is critical for stimulus identification and memory. Neuroimaging studies also revealed that specific areas in the prefrontal cortex are active during different kinds of memory retrieval and proposed a model of hemispheric asymmetry in relation to prefrontal memory function. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy in vivo, both proton- and phosphorous-(1H-MRS and 31P-MRS), can add a new dimension to these experiments because MRS allows a noninvasive detection of numerous brain metabolites. In this paper the author presents the clinical implications of MRS in her study of memory disorders in patients with Alzheimer's, Pick's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, Wilson's, Binswanger's and Creutzfeldt-Jacob's disease, and in an apparently health person with semantic memory disorder in whom the "biochemical laterality" observed by MRS supports the model of hemispheric asymmetry in relation to prefrontal memory function.

Key words: Memory disorders, neuroimaging, MR-spectroscopy in vivo