Effects of the dopamine agonist piribedil on prefrontal temporal cortical network function in normal aging as assessed by verbal fluency

Normal aging has been associated with impaired performance in verbal fluency suggesting a prefrontal temporal cortical network (PFTCN) deficiency. In this study, we investigated the effects of a 2-month treatment period with a dopaminergic agonist (DA) on PFTCN function. Forty healthy, elderly volunteers were assessed on semantic and phonemic verbal fluency after two months of a placebo or a DA treatment (i.e. piribedil 50 mg/day) in a double-blind crossover design. Protocols were scored considering clustering, (i.e. production of words within semantic or phonemic categories, depending on the integrity of temporal lobe), and switching (i.e. the ability to shift between clusters, depending on frontal lobe functioning). Results revealed no significant main effect of the DA treatment on either verbal fluency variables but showed a significant interaction with working memory capacities, with high-capacity span subjects improving phonemic switching on DA whereas low-capacity span subjects performed more poorly on the drug than off. These data are consistent with the literature and confirm the crucial link between working memory capacities and dopamine agonist effects. The present study also provides evidence that pharmacological remediation of age-related cognitive decline has to be taken into consideration.