Abstract
Local CMRGlc values were determined for 13 regions in each hemisphere from tomographs of patients with Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases who were studied using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose with positron emission computed tomography. Intercorrelations among the 26 regional measures were calculated for each disease state and for normal controls, and were accepted as reliable at p < 0.01, uncorrected for the number of comparisons. The number of reliable correlations was found to be decreased in Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, two primarily subcortical disorders, and increased in Alzheimer's disease, a primarily cortical disorder. The changes suggest that one role of the basal ganglia involves coordinating or pacing the ability of cortical brain regions to function as a unit.
