FUNCTIONAL NETWORK FOR BASIC, INSTRUMENTAL AND ADVANCED IADL IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASES: THE TECHNOLOGY-ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING QUESTIONNAIRE

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an increasingly important part of daily life. The Technology–Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (T-ADLQ): is a novel functional assessment scale that incorporates an ICT-related subscale. The assessment of functionality is an essential item in the diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD). T-ADLQ allow to divided ADL in three domains, i.e. Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADLs), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and Advanced ADL (a-ADL). There is limited research about AD-related neural change leading to decreased independence and no study investigating the neural correlates of a-ADL and the differences that could existwith BADL and IADL Objective: Explore the neural correlates of the global score of the T-ADQL and the three domains of ADL in patients with AD in comparison to healthy controls (HC). MR images were obtained with a 1.5-Tesla magnetic resonance scanner, T-1-weighted. The T-ADLQ were covaried against gray matter atrophy regions via Voxel-based morphometry in AD (n=33) and contrasted against Healthy Controls (n=29). The study was approved by the Ethical and Scientific Committee-SSMO. The T-ADLQ, controlled for age and education level, correlated with prefrontal, inferior and medial temporal lobe, as well as occipital brain regions in particular, indicating the importance of those regions in performing ADL type activities. BADL, IADL and a-ADL shares neuroanatomical commonalities and differences. Our study suggests that widespread atrophy of the prefrontal, temporal and occipital brain regions is significantly associated with functional impairment and cifferent domain of ADL are subtended by difference neural network- These findings further corroborate the notion that functional impairments are very sensitive to neurodegenerative processes, as they require intactness of multiple brain regions. Fundings: CONICYT / FONDAP /15150012; Conicyt/ Fondecyt Regular/ 1140423 and Basal Funds for Centers of Excellence, Project FB 0003 from the Associative Research Program of CONICYT.