Ricerc@Sapienza

Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) presents abnormalities in frontal executive and motor functions, due to the progressive neurodegeneration by not only nigrostriatal dopaminergic but also frontostriatal, mesocortical, mesolimbic, and fronto-parietal neural networks in relation to intracellular Lewy bodies and neurofibrillary tangles (Weisman et al., 2007 PMID: 17646627). As a result, DLB clinical manifestations extend to visual hallucinations, fluctuation of cognitive disorders, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep disorders (Donaghy and McKeith 2014 PMID: 25484925). In particular, visual hallucinations are very frequent (> 80%) in DLB patients (McKeith et al., 2017 PMID: 28592453). Our recent study showed that the amplitude of delta (about 2-4 Hz) and alpha (about 8-12 Hz) cortical sources of resting state (eyes-closed) electroencephalographic (rsEEG) rhythms might reflect different abnormalities of the core neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning brain arousal in quiet wakefulness and low vigilance in DLB patients (with mild cognitive impairment and dementia) also compared to others neurodegenerative diseases (i.e. Alzheimer¿s and Parkinson¿s disease) (Babiloni et al., 2017 PMID: 29407464). The purpose is to test the hypothesis that the cortical sources of rsEEG rhythms at delta and alpha frequencies may differ as a function of relevant clinical features in DLB patients such as the severity and fluctuation of cognitive deficits, REM behavioral disorders, and visual hallucinations. To test this hypothesis, cortical sources of rsEEG rhythms in age-, sex-, and education-matched DLB, AD, and Nold subjects will be extracted from our international archive and compared with the focus on statistical contrasts between matched DLB sub-groups with high vs. low global cognitive status, and the presence or absence of the fluctuation of cognitive disorders, visual hallucinations, and REM sleep behavior disorders.