ArticlePloS one2016
Prefrontal Activity and Connectivity with the Basal Ganglia during Performance of Complex Cognitive Tasks Is Associated with Apathy in Healthy Subjects.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Efficacy of methylphenidate for the treatment of apathy in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies.Psychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Depression and apathy: examining an overlooked dimension.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Article
- Differential brain reorganization in chronic cervical spinal cord injury and its relation to motor versus sensory impairments: a preliminary investigation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Apathy Is Associated with Slower Gait and Subjective Cognitive Complaints in a South Indian Community-Dwelling Cohort.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Frequency-dependent changes in the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in post stroke apathy: a resting-state fMRI study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The neural correlates of apathy in the context of aging and brain disorders: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Review
- The stability of multidimensional subclinical apathy during a pandemic and its relations to psycho-behavioral factors.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Prefrontal hyperactivation during dual-task walking related to apathy symptoms in older individuals.PloS one · 2022Article
- Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the frontal-striatal circuit in elderly with apathy.PloS one · 2021Article
- Apathy Mediates Cognitive Difficulties in Geriatric Depression.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2018Article
- Maternal Sevoflurane Exposure Causes Abnormal Development of Fetal Prefrontal Cortex and Induces Cognitive Dysfunction in Offspring.Stem cells international · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveConvergent evidence indicates that apathy affects cognitive behavior in different neurological and psychiatric conditions. Studies of clinical populations have also suggested the primary involvement of the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia in apathy. These brain regions are interconnected at both the structural and functional levels and are deeply involved in cognitive processes, such as working memory and attention. However, it is unclear how apathy modulates brain processing during cognition and whether such a modulation occurs in healthy young subjects. To address this issue, we investigated the link between apathy and prefrontal and basal ganglia function in healthy young individuals. We hypothesized that apathy may be related to sub-optimal activity and connectivity in these brain regions.
methodsThree hundred eleven healthy subjects completed an apathy assessment using the Starkstein's Apathy Scale and underwent fMRI during working memory and attentional performance tasks. Using an ROI approach, we investigated the association of apathy with activity and connectivity in the DLPFC and the basal ganglia.
resultsApathy scores correlated positively with prefrontal activity and negatively with prefrontal-basal ganglia connectivity during both working memory and attention tasks. Furthermore, prefrontal activity was inversely related to attentional behavior.
conclusionsThese results suggest that in healthy young subjects, apathy is a trait associated with inefficient cognitive-related prefrontal activity, i.e., it increases the need for prefrontal resources to process cognitive stimuli. Furthermore, apathy may alter the functional relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia during cognition.
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