Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Nov 3.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Metab. 2015 Sep 10;22(5):761–776. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2015.08.016

Table 2.

Hypothalamus and Alzheimer’s disease: select neuroimaging studies

MRI(volume)
Study Subjects (n) Degree of cognitive dysfunction Findings Key References
Mild AD (19)
Controls (16)		 MMSE

  • Mild AD: 22.4±2.5

  • Decrease in gray matter of anterior hypothalamus

 (Baron et al., 2001)
AD (40)
Controls (40)		 MMSE

  • AD: 19.5±6.9

  • Decrease in hypothalamic volume

 (Callen et al., 2001)
Male AD (20)
Female AD (20)
Male controls (20)
Female controls (20)		 MMSE

  • Male AD: 20.4±6.2

  • Female AD: 18.6±5.7

  • Decrease in hypothalamicvolume (mammillary bodies and fornix) in males

  • Females less affected

 (Callen et al., 2004)
Cognitive symptoms (20)
MCI (20)
AD (16)
Controls (20)		 MMSE

  • Cognitive symptoms: 28.7

  • MCI: 27.2

  • AD: 24.6

  • Controls: 29.1

  • Atrophy or decreased volume in fornix and mammillary bodies in AD>MCI

 (Copenhaver et al., 2006)
AD (73)
DLB (73)
Controls (73)		 MMSE

  • AD: 21

  • DLB: 22

  • Controls: 29

  • Grey matter loss in hypothalamus

 (Whitwell et al., 2007)
AD (26)
Normal to AD
(21)Controls (127)		 3MS

  • AD: 76.7

  • Normal to AD: 94.9

  • Controls: 96.9

  • Atrophy of medial basal forebrain including hypothalamus precedes dementia by 4–5 years

 (Hall et al., 2008)
Mild AD (63)
Controls (55)		 MMSE

  • Mild AD: 26.1±3.7

  • Controls: 29.5±0.7

  • Decrease in hypothalamic volume correlated with BMD loss

 (Loskutova et al., 2010)
SPECT (perfusion)
Study Subjects (n) Degree of cognitive dysfunction Findings Key References
AD (40)
Controls (18)		 MMSE

  • AD: 19.5+/−6.9

  • Controls: 28.5+/−1.7

  • Non-significant trend towards decreased perfusion in hypothalamus in AD

 (Callen et al., 2002)
Male AD (20)
Female AD (20)
Male controls (20)
Female controls (20)		 MMSE

  • Male AD: 20.4±6.2

  • Female AD: 18.6±5.7

  • Non-significant trend towards decreased perfusion in hypothalamus in male AD

 (Callen et al., 2004)
18FDG-PET (glucose metabolism)
Study Subjects (n) Degree of cognitive dysfunction Findings Key References
AD (10)
MCI (10)
Controls (15)		 MMSE

  • AD: 22.8+/−1.8

  • MCI: 28.4+/−1.5

  • Controls: 29.7+/−0.5

  • Reduced in mammillary bodies in MCI and AD

 (Nestor et al., 2003)
MCI (12)
Controls (23)		 MMSE

  • MCI: not reported Controls: 26−30

  • Reduced in the hypothalamus in MCI

 (Cross et al., 2013)

Abbreviations: MCI – mild cognitive impairment, BMD – bone mineral density; DLB – dementia with Lewy bodies; MMSE – mini mental state examination (scale: 0 to 30 with normal range: 27 to 30); 3MS – modified mini-mental state (scale: 0 to 100 with dementia/cognitive impairment < 79).