Reduced Hippocampal GABA+ Is Associated With Poorer Episodic Memory in Healthy Older Women: A Pilot Study.
Front Behav Neurosci
; 15: 695416, 2021.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34512283
ABSTRACT
Background:
The current pilot study was designed to examine the association between hippocampal γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration and episodic memory in older individuals, as well as the impact of two major risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD)-female sex and Apolipoprotein ε4 (ApoE ε4) genotype-on this relationship.Methods:
Twenty healthy, community-dwelling individuals aged 50-71 (11 women) took part in the study. Episodic memory was evaluated using a Directed Forgetting task, and GABA+ was measured in the right hippocampus using a Mescher-Garwood point-resolved magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) sequence. Multiple linear regression models were used to quantify the relationship between episodic memory, GABA+, ApoE É4, and sex, controlling for age and education.Results:
While GABA+ did not interact with ApoE É4 carrier status to influence episodic memory (p = 0.757), the relationship between GABA+ and episodic memory was moderated by sex lower GABA+ predicted worse memory in women such that, for each standard deviation decrease in GABA+ concentration, memory scores were reduced by 11% (p = 0.001).Conclusions:
This pilot study suggests that sex, but not ApoE É4 genotype, moderates the relationship between hippocampal GABA+ and episodic memory, such that women with lower GABA+ concentration show worse memory performance. These findings, which must be interpreted with caution given the small sample size, may serve as a starting point for larger studies using multimodal neuroimaging to understand the contributions of GABA metabolism to age-related memory decline.
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MEDLINE
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En
Ano de publicação:
2021
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Article