Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Correlational tractography maps cholinergic pathways, revealing cognitive declines in early-dementia patients, highlighting potential biomarkers.
Motivation: Denervation of nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) tracts may capture cognitive impairment that precedes grey matter loss in Alzheimer's disease(AD). Goal(s): To map the cholinergic pathways and establish diffusion-cognition correlates for early detection of AD. Approach: We mapped the NBM-cholinergic pathways exhibiting significant correlations with cognitive assessment in 11 early-dementia(ED) patients, 22 mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and 22 healthy controls(HC) using correlational tractography. Results: Quantitative anisotropy(QA) and restricted diffusion imaging(RDI) demonstrated significant correlations with cognitive assessment(MOCA) in the NBM-cholinergic pathways of all cohorts. Significantly reduced QA and RDI with MOCA were seen in ED but did not significantly differ between MCI and HC. Impact: The findings establish biological correlates to cognitive manifestation as objective biomarkers for early detection of AD by mapping the NBM-cholinergic tracts with strongest correlation. The surrogate markers aid development of modifying therapies, and potentially discriminate MCI subgroups for personalized management.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Seow et al. (2025) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: