Study on relationship between subcortical nuclei volume and spatial navigation performance in patients with mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the correlation between subcortical nuclei volume and spatial navigation performance in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods Thirty MCI subjects and 28 healthy controls matched in gender, age and education were enrolled in this study, and all of them underwent 3.0T MRI scan and computer version spatial navigation test. The three-dimensional turbo fast echo (3D - TFE) T1WI structures were segmented by FreeSurfer 5.3.0 software. The volume of bilateral thalami, caudate nuclei, putamen, globus pallidi, hippocampi, amygdaloid bodies, nuclei accumbens septi and whole brain were calculated. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to investigate the correlation between spatial navigation performance and subcortical nuclei volume.  Results MCI patients showed longer allocentric-egocentric virtual distance error (P = 0.034), egocentric virtual distance error (P = 0.004) and allocentric virtual distance error (P = 0.011) than control subjects, while the volume of bilateral thalami (P = 0.953, 0.250), caudate nuclei (P = 0.938, 0.672), putamen (P = 0.421, 0.912), globus pallidi (P = 0.446, 0.360), hippocampi (P = 0.545, 0.647), amygdaloid bodies (P = 0.565, 0.993), nuclei accumbens septi (P =0.271, 0.796) and whole brain (P = 0.567) showed no significant differences between 2 groups. Pearson correlation analysis showed allocentric-egocentric virtual distance error was negatively related to the volume of left globus pallidum (r = -0.284, P = 0.034) and left hippocampus (r = .0.265, P = 0.048), and allocentric virtual distance error was negatively related to the volume of left putamen (r = -0.305, P = 0.022) in MCI subjects.  Conclusions There are correlations between spatial navigation performance and subcortical nuclei volume in MCI patients, and it is significant in further study of the mechanisms of human spatial navigation disturbance.

DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2017.05.009