MRI marker linked to Alzheimer’s risk years before symptoms — News-Medical

Researchers led by Stanford Medicine have developed a measure based on resting-state functional MRI that may identify vulnerability to cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease even before noticeable memory problems emerge. As News-Medical reports, the study results were published on November 4 in the journal Science Advances.

Two groups of older people were compared

The scientists analyzed functional MRI data from 180 so-called superagers and 110 people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, superagers were defined as people aged 75 and older whose memory matched the typical level of 45-year-olds and whose executive functions remained normal for their age.

The researchers identified differences in functional brain connectivity — patterns of activity and interaction among its different regions at rest. On this basis, they created the Alzheimer’s resilience-vulnerability connectome, or ARC, scale. It distinguished superagers from participants with Alzheimer’s disease with approximately 85% accuracy.

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The prediction was tested on more than 1,300 people

The ARC was then applied to more than 1,300 people aged 55 to 70 who had no cognitive impairment at the time of examination. Higher scale values indicated brain activity more similar to that of people with Alzheimer’s disease, while lower values were more similar to superager patterns.

At the start of follow-up, no obvious differences in cognitive tests were observed between groups with different ARC results. However, in subsequent data, people with more Alzheimer’s-like scores had a faster decline in memory, attention, and executive function test results. They were also more likely to have amyloid-beta deposits detected and to receive an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. The longest follow-up period in the available datasets reached 12 years, although for most participants it was five to six years.

The measure is not yet a diagnosis

The authors noted that ARC should not be used as a diagnostic test. In their view, it may be a tool for monitoring cognitive status and early risk assessment. According to the study’s senior author, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Yu Zhang, the team plans to investigate whether cognitive training can change this measure. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and cognitive training as ways to prevent cognitive decline were not tested in this study.