Neurobiology of apathy in Alzheimer's disease

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães,Henrique Cerqueira
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Levy,Richard, Teixeira,Antônio Lúcio, Beato,Rogério Gomes, Caramelli,Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2008000300035
• topic: apathy; Alzheimer's disease; decision-making; orbito-frontal cortex; anterior cingulate cortex; basal ganglia; dopamine

Apathy is considered the most frequent neuropsychiatric disturbance in dementia and its outcome is generally deleterious. Apathy can be related to a dysfunction of the anatomical-system that supports the generation of voluntary actions, namely the prefrontal cortex and/or the prefrontal-subcortical circuits. In Alzheimer's disease, pathological and neuroimaging data indicate that apathy is likely due to a dysfunction of the medial prefrontal cortex. Accordingly, in this review article, we propose a pathophysiological model to explain apathetic behavior in Alzheimer's disease, combining data from neuroimaging, neuropathology and experimental research on the role of orbito-frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia and dopamine in decision-making neurobiology.