Strongly reduced volumes of putamen and thalamus in Alzheimer’s disease: an MRI study
Open accessAbstract
Atrophy is regarded a sensitive marker of neurodegenerative pathology. In addition to confirming the well-known presence of decreased global grey matter and hippocampal volumes in Alzheimer's disease, this study investigated whether deep grey matter structure also suffer degeneration in Alzheimer's disease, and whether such degeneration is associated with cognitive deterioration. In this cross-sectional correlation study, two groups were compared on volumes of seven subcortical regions: 70 memory complainers (MCs) and 69 subjects diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease. Using 3T 3D T1 MR images, volumes of nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen and thalamus were automatically calculated by the FMRIB's Integrated Registration and Segmentation Tool (FIRST)--algorithm FMRIB's Software Library (FSL). Subsequently, the volumes of the different regions were correlated with cognitive test results. In addition to finding the expected association between hippocampal atrophy and cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease, volumes of putamen and thalamus were significantly reduced in patients diagnosed with probable Alzheimer's disease. We also found that the decrease in volume correlated linearly with impaired global cognitive performance. These findings strongly suggest that, beside neo-cortical atrophy, deep grey matter structures in Alzheimer's disease suffer atrophy as well and that degenerative processes in the putamen and thalamus, like the hippocampus, may contribute to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.
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Previous neuroimaging studies comparing GM changes between AD patients and healthy individuals have identified significant morphological atrophy in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala, putamen, and thalamus.
“Previous neuroimaging studies comparing GM changes between AD patients and healthy individuals have identified significant morphological atrophy in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala, putamen, and thalamus (de Jong et al., 2008; Serra et al., 2010; Matsuda, 2013).”
From Multimodal MRI combined with RNA sequencing reveals pathological signatures in the 9-month-old 3×Tg-AD mouse brain (2026) · cites this paper as de Jong et al., 2008
The Abstract and Discussion report significantly smaller hippocampal, putaminal, and thalamic volumes in patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease; the Introduction also reports earlier imaging evidence of amygdalar atrophy. Our copy does not identify entorhinal cortex atrophy specifically. The study compared patients with memory complainers rather than a group described simply as healthy individuals. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- de Jong, L. W., van der Hiele, K., Veer, I. M., Houwing, J. J., Westendorp, R. G. J., Bollen, E. L. E. M., de Bruin, P. W., Middelkoop, H. A. M., van Buchem, M. A., & van der Grond, J.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-11-20
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 3277-3285
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- PMC
- PMC2639208
- OpenAlex
- W2038899746
- Cited by
- 557
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 52 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 12.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease, putamen, thalamus, subcortical volume, hippocampal atrophy, cognitive decline, memory impairment, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, volumetric MRI
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Atrophy, Cognition Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Putamen, Thalamus
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