History of Subcortical Cognitive Impairment.

History of Subcortical Cognitive Impairment. Front Neurol Neurosci. 2019;44:108-117 Authors: Filley CM Abstract The representation of cognitive function in the cerebral cortex has a long and cherished history, but much evidence also supports a critical role of subcortical structures in the operations of cognition. The idea of subcortical dementia, first proposed in 1932 and substantially expanded in the 1970s, is the most prominent formulation intended to capture the phenomenology of cognitive impairment attributable to subcortical involvement. Despite criticism highlighting its imprecision, subcortical dementia has endured as a useful general concept assisting the classification of dementia syndromes based on the primary site(s) of neuropathology. As neuroscientific knowledge expanded with the advent of modern structural and functional neuroimaging, a more detailed understanding of the contributions of specific subcortical regions emerged, such that the cognitive affiliations of the basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, brainstem, and white matter are all better defined. Important advances have been made by the study of both neurodegenerative diseases and focal lesions. Today, the complex admixture of cortical and subcortical foundations of cognition is increasingly well appreciated, and has been conceptually organized within the broadly inclusive notion of distributed neural networks. These networks are thought to integrate cortical...
Source: Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Front Neurol Neurosci Source Type: research