Differential neural structures, intrinsic functional connectivity, and episodic memory in subjective cognitive decline and healthy controls

Abstract The neural correlates of subjective cognitive decline (SCD; i.e., without objectifiable deficit) remain to be elucidated. Possible causes of SCD include early neurodegeneration related to Alzheimer's disease or functional and structural changes related to sub-clinical depression. We investigated the relationship between episodic memory performance or memory complaints and structural or functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures in participants with SCD (n=18) but without psychiatric disorders and healthy controls (n=31). In SCD, memory complaints were not associated with memory performance but with sub-clinical depression and executive functions. SCD-associated memory complaints correlated with higher amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus (specifically subiculum) gray matter density. In controls, but not in SCD, mesiotemporal gray matter density and superior frontal gyrus functional connectivity predicted memory performance. In contrast, in SCD, only a trend toward a correlation between memory performance and gray matter density in the parietooccipital lobes was observed. In our memory-clinic sample of SCD, we did not observe incipient neurodegeneration (limited to structural and functional MRI) but rather sub-clinical depression underlying subjective cognitive complaints.