CORRELATION OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION WITH CEREBRAL METABOLIC-RATE IN SUBDIVISIONS OF THE FRONTAL LOBES OF OLDER ALCOHOLIC PATIENTS MEASURED WITH [F-18] FLUORODEOXYGLUCOSE AND POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY

Literature concerning 2 clinical measures of concept formation, the Ha lstead Category Test (HCT) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), indicates that these 2 tests assess different aspects of concept form ation and abstraction. We studied 37 older alcoholic patients on the H CT and WCST and measured their local cerebral metabolic rate for gluco se (LCMRG) with [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and positron emission t omography (PET) in the 3 principal frontal lobe subdivisions (cingulat e, dorsolateral, and orbitomedial). Performance on the summary subtest (Subtest VII) of the HCT was correlated with LCMRG in all 3 frontal s ubdivisions, whereas the summary WCST measure of categories achieved w as correlated only with LCMRG in the cingulate region. These findings suggest that abnormalities in functioning of the subdivisions of the f rontal lobe may contribute to different aspects of the behavioral impa irment seen in older alcoholic patients.