Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25844322›Full record

Trial reportNeuroImage. Clinical2015

Response of the medial temporal lobe network in amnestic mild cognitive impairment to therapeutic intervention assessed by fMRI and memory task performance.

Arnold Bakker, Marilyn S Albert, Gregory Krauss, Caroline L Speck, Michela Gallagher

Open access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in NeuroImage. Clinical, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 167 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
167citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
13.9field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

167 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 291 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Modulation of hippocampal activity in schizophrenia with levetiracetam: a randomized, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024
    Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Excitation-inhibition homeostasis in Alzheimer's disease: a selective multiscale review of mechanisms, sex differences, and therapeutic opportunities.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Review
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Restoration of sFRP3 Preserves the Neural Stem Cell Pool and Spatial Discrimination Ability in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Altered NPTX2 dynamics associated with impaired cognitive aging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Pharmacological reduction of reverse-translated hippocampal hyperactivity in mouse: relevance for psychosis.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Precuneus Activity during Retrieval Is Positively Associated with Amyloid Burden in Cognitively Normal OlderThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  20. Article

107 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Arnold BakkerDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Marilyn S AlbertDepartment of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Gregory KraussDepartment of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Caroline L SpeckDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Michela GallagherDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Arts and Sciences, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
Johns Hopkins University · USJohns Hopkins Medicine · US

Funding

'T V ASSESSMENT - MEMORY DISORDERED PATIENTS'P50AG005146 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI ALBERT, MARILYN S. · 1985 to 2019
$37.6M
Bridging cognitive aging in rodents to man using fMRI in amnestic MCIRC2AG036419 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI GALLAGHER, MICHELA · 2009 to 2010
$1.3M
NIA NIH HHS P50 AG005146NIA NIH HHS RC2 AG036419NIA NIH HHS RC2AG036419
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Studies of individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have detected hyperactivity in the hippocampus during task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such elevated activation has been localized to the hippocampal dentate gyrus/CA3 (DG/CA3) during performance of a task designed to detect the computational contributions of those hippocampal circuits to episodic memory. The current investigation was conducted to test the hypothesis that greater hippocampal activation in aMCI represents a dysfunctional shift in the normal computational balance of the DG/CA3 regions, augmenting CA3-driven pattern completion at the expense of pattern separation mediated by the dentate gyrus. We tested this hypothesis using an intervention based on animal research demonstrating a beneficial effect on cognition by reducing excess hippocampal neural activity with low doses of the atypical anti-epileptic levetiracetam. In a within-subject design we assessed the effects of levetiracetam in three cohorts of aMCI participants, each receiving a different dose of levetiracetam. Elevated activation in the DG/CA3 region, together with impaired task performance, was detected in each aMCI cohort relative to an aged control group. We observed significant improvement in memory task performance under drug treatment relative to placebo in the aMCI cohorts at the 62.5 and 125 mg BID doses of levetiracetam. Drug treatment in those cohorts increased accuracy dependent on pattern separation processes and reduced errors attributable to an over-riding effect of pattern completion while normalizing fMRI activation in the DG/CA3 and entorhinal cortex. Similar to findings in animal studies, higher dosing at 250 mg BID had no significant benefit on either task performance or fMRI activation. Consistent with predictions based on the computational functions of the DG/CA3 elucidated in basic animal research, these data support a dysfunctional encoding mechanism detected by fMRI in individuals with aMCI and therapeutic intervention using fMRI to detect target engagement in response to treatment.

Indexed as

AgedAnticonvulsantsCognitive DysfunctionCross-Over StudiesDentate GyrusFemaleHumansImage Processing, Computer-AssistedLevetiracetamMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMemoryMiddle AgedNeuropsychological TestsPiracetamTemporal LobeAnticonvulsantsLevetiracetamPiracetamDentate gyrusEntorhinal cortexfMRILevetiracetamMemoryMild cognitive impairment

Identifiers

PMID25844322
PMCPMC4377841
OpenAlexW2036361806

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.