THA disrupts mismatch negativity in Alzheimer disease

Abstract The present study investigates the effects of 25 or 50 mg tetrahydroaminoacridine (THA), a cholinesterase inhibitor, on auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related response in 19 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). MMN is produced by the deviant tones representing passive attention and automatic detection of stimulus change. In an inattentive task condition, standard (85%) and deviant (15%) tones were represented in a random order with interstimulus interval of 1 s in separate blocks. THA 25 mg had no effect on MMN in AD patients. In contrast, THA 50 mg diminished MMN in AD subjects. The results suggests that acute treatment of AD subjects with a cholinesterase inhibitor disrupts the passive detection of change in an auditory input.

[1]  M. Hamilton.  A RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION , 1960, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[2]  S. Eagger,et al.  Clinical heterogeneity: responders to cholinergic therapy. , 1995, Alzheimer disease and associated disorders.

[3]  H. Soininen,et al.  A severe loss of choline acetyltransferase in the frontal cortex of Alzheimer patients carrying apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele. , 1995, Neuroscience letters.

[4]  J. Risberg,et al.  Intravenous physostigmine treatment of Alzheimer's disease evaluated by psychometric testing, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurement, and EEG , 2005, Psychopharmacology.

[5]  H. Soininen,et al.  Hippocampal atrophy, acute THA treatment and memory in Alzheimer's disease. , 1995, Neuroreport.

[6]  J. Coyle,et al.  Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia: loss of neurons in the basal forebrain. , 1982, Science.

[7]  A. Lawrence,et al.  Alzheimer disease, attention, and the cholinergic system. , 1995, Alzheimer disease and associated disorders.

[8]  J. Poirier.  Apolipoprotein E in animal models of CNS injury and in alzheimer's disease , 1994, Trends in Neurosciences.

[9]  H. Moore,et al.  Neuronal mechanisms mediating drug-induced cognition enhancement: cognitive activity as a necessary intervening variable. , 1996, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[10]  B. Sahakian,et al.  Nicotine and tetrahydroaminoacradine: Evidence for improved attention in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type , 1994 .

[11]  R. Hari.  On Brain's Magnetic Responses to Sensory Stimuli , 1991, Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society.

[12]  R. Näätänen.  The role of attention in auditory information processing as revealed by event-related potentials and other brain measures of cognitive function , 1990, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[13]  N. Lassen,et al.  Multi-infarct dementia. A cause of mental deterioration in the elderly. , 1974, Lancet.

[14]  H. Soininen,et al.  Tetrahydroaminoacridine modulates technetium-99m labelled ethylene dicysteinate retention in Alzheimer's disease measured with single photon emission computed tomography imaging , 1995, Neuroscience Letters.

[15]  V. Jousmäki,et al.  Auditory sensory memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease: an event-related potential study. , 1994, Neuroreport.