Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. May 19, 2023; 13(5): 203-214
Published online May 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i5.203
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy in elderly patients with four types of dementia
Xi Mei, Chen-Jun Zou, Jun Hu, Xiao-Li Liu, Cheng-Ying Zheng, Dong-Sheng Zhou
Xi Mei, Xiao-Li Liu, Dong-Sheng Zhou, Key Lab, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo 315201, Zhejiang Province, China
Chen-Jun Zou, Jun Hu, Cheng-Ying Zheng, Department of Geriatric, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo 315201, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Mei X and Zou CJ performed fNIRS protocols, data collection, and wrote the manuscript; Mei X, Zou CJ, Liu XL, and Hu J performed data analysis; Zheng CY and Zhou DS proofread the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Ningbo Medical and Health Leading Academic Discipline Project, No. 2022-F28; Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Project, No. 2021KY1066; and Ningbo City Public Welfare Science and Technology Plan Project, No. 2022S025.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Ningbo Kangning Hospital.
Informed consent statement: All subjects enrolled in the study signed the written consent and agreed to publish the details of their medical case and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: All data are included in the manuscript. However, the raw data used and/or analyzed in the present study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4. 0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dong-Sheng Zhou, Research Assistant, Key Lab, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, No. 1 Zhuangyu South Road, Ningbo 315201, Zhejiang Province, China. wyzhouds@sina.com
Received: December 7, 2022
Peer-review started: December 7, 2022
First decision: February 20, 2023
Revised: March 2, 2023
Accepted: April 4, 2023
Article in press: April 4, 2023
Published online: May 19, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is commonly used to study human brain function by measuring the hemodynamic signals originating from cortical activation and provides a new noninvasive detection method for identifying dementia.

AIM

To investigate the fNIRS imaging technique and its clinical application in differential diagnosis of subtype dementias including frontotemporal lobe dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

METHODS

Four patients with different types of dementia were examined with fNIRS during two tasks and a resting state. We adopted the verbal fluency task, working memory task and resting state task. Each patient was compared on the same task. We conducted and analyzed the fNIRS data using a general linear model and Pearson’s correlation analysis.

RESULTS

Compared with other types of dementias, fNIRS showed the left frontotemporal and prefrontal lobes to be poorly activated during the verbal fluency task in frontotemporal dementia. In Lewy body dementia, severe asymmetry of prefrontal lobes appeared during both verbal fluency and working memory tasks, and the patient had low functional connectivity during a resting state. In PDD, the patient’s prefrontal cortex showed lower excitability than the temporal lobe during the verbal fluency task, while the prefrontal cortex showed higher excitability during the working memory task. The patient with AD showed poor prefrontal and temporal activation during the working memory task, and more activation of frontopolar instead of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

CONCLUSION

Different hemodynamic characteristics of four types of dementia (as seen by fNIRS imaging) provides evidence that fNIRS can serve as a potential tool for the diagnosis between dementia subtypes.

Keywords: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy, Frontotemporal lobe dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia, Alzheimer’s disease

Core Tip: Four types of dementia showed different patterns of activation when examined by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during two tasks and a resting state. The patient with frontotemporal dementia showed the lowest activation during the verbal fluency task and the patient with Alzheimer’s disease showed the lowest activation during the working memory task. During the resting state, functional connectivity was poor in the patients with Lewy bodies dementia and Parkinson’s disease dementia. fNIRS imaging in dementia patients may be able to differentiate between types of dementia, and may be useful in diagnosis for these patients.