Место издания:Austrian Neuroscience Association Sölden, Austria
Первая страница:58
Последняя страница:58
Аннотация:Arginine is one of the most metabolically versatile amino acids, which can be
metabolized to form a number of bioactive molecules. Research data on animals
demonstrate possible arginine involvement in visuospatial memory processes functioning
(Utkan et al., 2012; Hosseini et al., 2010).
We compared arginine levels (1.72, 1.90, 3.77 ppm) in hippocampi of both
hemispheres and right inferior parietal cortex with neuropsychological visuospatial memory
characteristics of 18 females, mean age – 58.2 years old. For each subject we performed
3T proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Visuospatial memory capacity, permanency
and the amount of different memory errors were assessed with Luria’s neuropsychological
tests. We calculated non-parametric correlations (p<0.05) between individual
neuropsychological and biochemical measurements.
Visuospatial memory capacity correlates negatively (r=-0.47) with arginine (3.77
ppm) level. Furthermore, higher arginine (1.72 ppm) level is related to the increase of confabulations (r=0.58), contaminations (r=0.47) and sequence errors (r=0.64 and r=0.61 for 1.90 ppm). No significant correlations for both hippocampi were revealed.
According to the results, high arginine level in right inferior parietal cortex is related to the increased amount of different visuospatial memory errors and the decrease of visuospatial memory capacity. Our results correspond well with the Hosseini et al. (2010) study, which demonstrates that administration of arginine leads to visuospatial memory impairment in rats. Although there is no certain explanation of the revealed fact, we can suggest that either arginine itself has a negative effect on the memory processes or it is not utilized properly in the brain, causing the decrease in nitric oxide synthesis.