Prefrontal Activity and Connectivity with the Basal Ganglia during Performance of Complex Cognitive Tasks Is Associated with Apathy in Healthy Subjects

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 10; p. e0165301
• Main Authors: Fazio, Leonardo, Logroscino, Giancarlo, Taurisano, Paolo, Amico, Graziella, Quarto, Tiziana, Antonucci, Linda Antonella, Barulli, Maria Rosaria, Mancini, Marina, Gelao, Barbara, Ferranti, Laura, Popolizio, Teresa, Bertolino, Alessandro, Blasi, Giuseppe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 31.10.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Alzheimer's disease; Apathy; Apathy - physiology; Attention; Basal ganglia; Basal Ganglia - physiopathology; Behavior; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Cognition; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Cognitive tasks; Correlation analysis; Dementia; Demography; Emotional behavior; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Ganglia; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Memory; Memory tasks; Memory, Short-Term; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Neural networks; Neurology; Neurosciences; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Parkinson's disease; Physical Sciences; Population studies; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology; Psychiatry; Research and Analysis Methods; Science; Short term memory; Society; Structure-function relationships; Studies; Task complexity; Task Performance and Analysis; Italy
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165301

Convergent evidence indicates that apathy affects cognitive behavior in different neurological and psychiatric conditions. Studies of clinical populations have also suggested the primary involvement of the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia in apathy. These brain regions are interconnected at both the structural and functional levels and are deeply involved in cognitive processes, such as working memory and attention. However, it is unclear how apathy modulates brain processing during cognition and whether such a modulation occurs in healthy young subjects. To address this issue, we investigated the link between apathy and prefrontal and basal ganglia function in healthy young individuals. We hypothesized that apathy may be related to sub-optimal activity and connectivity in these brain regions. Three hundred eleven healthy subjects completed an apathy assessment using the Starkstein's Apathy Scale and underwent fMRI during working memory and attentional performance tasks. Using an ROI approach, we investigated the association of apathy with activity and connectivity in the DLPFC and the basal ganglia. Apathy scores correlated positively with prefrontal activity and negatively with prefrontal-basal ganglia connectivity during both working memory and attention tasks. Furthermore, prefrontal activity was inversely related to attentional behavior. These results suggest that in healthy young subjects, apathy is a trait associated with inefficient cognitive-related prefrontal activity, i.e., it increases the need for prefrontal resources to process cognitive stimuli. Furthermore, apathy may alter the functional relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia during cognition.