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Increased CBF velocity during word fluency in Huntington's disease patients

A W Deckel1, D Cohen

  • 1Dept. Psychiatry, Huntington's Disease Treatment Center, University of Connecticut Medical School, Farmington, USA. Deckel@Psychiatry.uchc.edu

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry
|May 9, 2000
PubMed

Insights

Huntington's disease (HD) patients show altered cerebral blood flow (CBF) during cognitive tasks. Speech production increased CBF velocity in HD, unlike other tasks, indicating a fundamental regulation disturbance.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Neurology
  • Cerebrovascular Physiology

Background:

  • Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting cognitive and motor functions.
  • Previous research indicates abnormal cerebral blood flow (CBF) in HD patients during certain tasks.
  • Understanding CBF regulation is crucial for managing HD progression.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of word fluency and reading tasks on cerebral blood flow velocity in HD patients.
  • To differentiate the effects of cognitive versus motor components of word fluency on CBF.
  • To explore potential correlations between CBF changes and disease severity in HD.

Main Methods:

  • Functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) was used to measure cerebral flow velocity in the anterior (ACA) and middle (MCA) cerebral arteries.
  • Thirteen healthy controls and nine gene-positive HD patients participated.
  • Tasks included aloud word fluency, silent word fluency, and a reading test to isolate motor and cognitive demands.

Main Results:

  • HD patients exhibited increased CBF velocity in the ACA during aloud word fluency compared to controls.
  • Silent word fluency led to decreased CBF velocity in HD patients relative to controls, suggesting motor involvement.
  • CBF velocity changes correlated with word fluency scores and could predict group assignment (control, mild HD, moderate HD).

Conclusions:

  • CBF velocity in HD is dysregulated during both cognitive and motor tasks.
  • Speech production uniquely increases CBF velocity in HD patients, contrasting with findings from motor tasks.
  • These results suggest a fundamental disturbance in CBF regulation in Huntington's disease, potentially involving pathways like nitric oxide.

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