Brain activation by visual erotic stimuli in healthy middle aged males.

The objective of the present study was to identify brain centers, whose activity changes are related to erotic visual stimuli in healthy, heterosexual, middle aged males. Ten heterosexual, right-handed males with normal sexual function were entered into the present study (mean age 52 years, range 46-55). All potential subjects were screened over 1 h interview, and were encouraged to fill out questionnaires including the Brief Male Sexual Function Inventory. All subjects with a history of sexual arousal disorder or erectile dysfunction were excluded. We performed functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male volunteers when an alternatively combined erotic and nonerotic film was played for 14 min and 9 s. The major areas of activation associated with sexual arousal to visual stimuli were occipitotemporal area, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate nucleus. However, hypothalamus and thalamus were not activated. We suggest that the nonactivation of hypothalamus and thalamus in middle aged males may be responsible for the lesser physiological arousal in response to the erotic visual stimuli.

SU-E-I-74: White Matter Tract Disintegrate of Frontal and Limbic Regions in Mild Cognitive Impairment with Depression.

PURPOSE: Mild cognitive impairment with depression (MCID) is common and associated with disability and cognitive impairment, with high probability of relapse. Hypothesize that 1) a sign of WM disintegration would be observed in MCID than MCI nondepression (MCIND), especially in frontal and limbic regions and patients with depression would show reduced GM density in the hippocampus, amygdala, anterior gyrus cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) 2) the abnormalities of long association fiber tracts integrity are correlated with geriatric depression. METHODS: Forty-two subjects (20 nondepressed, 22 depressed) underwent DTI and cognitive assessment. Depression was initially assessed by means of the Korean version of the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale (K-GDS). All patients scoring 19 or higher on the K-GDS were screened as depressed. An automated tract-based statistical analysis method was used to derive estimates of fractional anisotropy (FA) for each subject. Group effects and correlations with clinical features on DTI parameters were examined. RESULTS: We found cross-sectional differences in WM tract disintegration on posterior cingulum, splenium of corpus callosum, uncinate fasciculus, genu, thalamus, internal and external capsule of limbic in MCID. These results support changes in the structural integrity of neuronal cells in these specific important brain regions constituting a fronto-limbic-cerebellar network during depressive and in particular during the course of depression. The different parts of the frontal lobes have afferent and efferent connections with other neocortical, limbic, and subcortical regions and participate in the limbic-cortico-striatal-pallidal-thalamic circuits. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are suggestive of loss of integrity in WM fiber within frontal, temporal and limbic regions, increasing the evidence that implicates disruptions to the limbic-orbitofrontal networks in the pathogenesis of MCID. These neuroanatomical circuits play an important role in the regulation and modulation of affect and emotion, and contribute to the pathogenesis of late-life depression.

SU-E-I-73: Gray Matter Atrophy and White Matter Tract Abnormalities by Voxel Wise Correlation Analysis in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the relationship between white matter (WM) tract disintegration and gray matter (GM) atrophy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and controls, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and an optimized voxel-based analysis. METHODS: Two hundred thirty one individuals (61 controls, 116 MCI and 54 AD) were included. Voxel-based WM tract statistics was used to obtain whole-brain maps of WM bundles for FA. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was conducted to detect regions of gray matter (GM) atrophy in the AD, MCI group relative to the control group. FA maps were processed to make voxel-wise comparison of tract based analysis in whole brain between each the two groups. The relationship between locations of abnormalities in the WM and GM were examined. RESULTS: Patients with AD showed significant GM atrophy in posterior cingulate gyrus (BA31, 32) to the precuneus, the middle temporal lobe (BA19), the superior frontal (BA9) to the anterior cingulate (BA 32), the medial frontal lobe (BA 11, BA25), the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus (BA30/34) and the insula, and WM tract disintegrity of the uncinate fasciculus, posterior cingulate fasciculus and fornix compared with the control and MCI groups. These abnormalities in the AD group were caused by either structural changes in GM atrophy or neural dysfunction due to functional disconnections in the WM tract. CONCLUSIONS: The GM atrophy resulting from WM tract disintegration or GM atrophy itself may be the first step in the AD process, resulting in anatomically congruent correlations between WM disintegration and regional GM atrophy. Using tract based spatial statistics and voxel based analysis, both of which are useful in investigating GM and WM changes in individuals with neurodegenerative disorders.