Predicting risk of impending cognitive decline in asymptomatic individuals with early Alzheimer's disease: Insights from cortical diffusion MRI.
Date
2025-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Citation Stats
Attention Stats
Abstract
Neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) can start at the microstructural level years before cognitive symptoms; yet, it has been difficult to definitively detect these early changes to plan effective treatments. Using a cortical column-based analysis of high-resolution diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data, we aim to identify early microstructural neurodegeneration in the gray matter across different cortical depths and regions. We compared four groups of participants across a spectrum of cognitive decline (n = 60): cognitively normal amyloid-negative (normal controls), cognitively normal amyloid-positive (stage-1 AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD dementia. Our results showed progressive increases in radial diffusivity across these groups in cortical regions associated with AD, and our analysis in individual asymptomatic stage-1 AD participants was able to differentiate such diffusivity increases to predict risk of impending cognitive decline in 2 participants who had cognitive decline and MCI diagnosis at their follow-up clinical examination and 11 participants who did not.
Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Overson, Devon K, Trong-Kha Truong, Jeffrey R Petrella, David J Madden, Yixin Ma, Kim G Johnson, Andy J Liu, Richard J O'Brien, et al. (2025). Predicting risk of impending cognitive decline in asymptomatic individuals with early Alzheimer's disease: Insights from cortical diffusion MRI. Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 3. p. IMAG.a.1037. 10.1162/imag.a.1037 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/33997.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
Trong-Kha Truong
I co-lead the MR Engineering Lab, which is part of the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. Our research involves the development of novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coil technologies – in particular integrated parallel reception, excitation, and shimming (iPRES) and integrated radio-frequency/wireless (iRFW) coils – to enable imaging, localized B0 shimming, and/or wireless communication with a single coil, thereby improving the image quality and clinical utility of MRI applications such as functional MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging in the human brain and body. We also develop high-resolution diffusion MRI techniques to investigate the microstructure of the human brain and to detect abnormalities in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
David Joseph Madden
My research focuses primarily on the cognitive neuroscience of aging: the investigation of age-related changes in perception, attention, and memory, using both behavioral measures and neuroimaging techniques, including positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
The behavioral measures have focused on reaction time, with the goal of distinguishing age-related changes in specific cognitive abilities from more general effects arising from a slowing in elementary perceptual processes. The cognitive abilities of interest include selective attention as measured in visual search tasks, semantic and episodic memory retrieval, and executive control processes.
The behavioral measures are necessary to define the cognitive abilities of interest, and the neuroimaging techniques help define the functional neuroanatomy of those abilities. The PET and fMRI measures provide information regarding neural activity during cognitive performance. DTI is a recently developed technique that images the structural integrity of white matter. The white matter tracts of the brain provide critical pathways linking the gray matter regions, and thus this work will complement the studies using PET and fMRI that focus on gray matter activation.
A current focus of the research program is the functional connectivity among regions, not only during cognitive task performance but also during rest. These latter measures, referred to as intrinsic functional connectivity, are beginning to show promise as an index of overall brain functional efficiency, which can be assessed without the implementation of a specific cognitive task. From DTI, information can be obtained regarding how anatomical connectivity constrains intrinsic functional connectivity. It will be important to determine the relative influence of white matter pathway integrity, intrinsic functional connectivity, and task-related functional connectivity, as mediators of age-related differences in behavioral measures of cognitive performance.
Ultimately, the research program can help link age-related changes in cognitive performance to changes in the structure and function of specific neural systems. The results also have implications for clinical translation, in terms of the identification of neural biomarkers for the diagnosis of neural pathology and targeting rehabilitation procedures.
Heather Elizabeth Whitson
Dr. Whitson's research is focused on improving care options and resilience for people with multiple chronic conditions. In particular, she has interest and expertise related to the link between age-related changes in the eye and brain (e.g., How does late-life vision loss impact the aging brain or cognitive outcomes? Is Alzheimer's disease associated with distinctive changes in the retina, and could such changes help diagnose Alzheimer's disease early in its course?). Dr. Whitson leads a collaborative Alzheimer's Disease initiative that brings together investigators from Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, with a bold vision to transform dementia research and care across Eastern North Carolina. Dr. Whitson is also interested in improving health services to better meet the needs of medically complex patients. Within the Duke Aging Center, she leads research efforts aimed at promoting resilience to late-life stressors (e.g., surgery, sensory loss, infection). She has developed a novel rehabilitation model for people with co-existing vision and cognitive deficits, and she is part of a inter-disciplinary team seeking to improve peri-operative outcomes for frail or at-risk seniors who must undergo surgery. As a co-leader of a national resilience collaborative, she seeks to better understand the biological and psychological factors that determine how well we "bounce back" after health stressors.
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.