Quantitative susceptibility mapping of hippocampal iron relates to pattern separation and completion in older adults at risk for Alzheimer's

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) was used to evaluate hippocampal iron in a cohort of healthy older individuals at elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and related to pattern separation and pattern completion memory performance. Our results demonstrated that elevated brain iron content in the hippocampus is strongly associated with lower performance on behavioral tests specific to memory function, ie lower pattern separation scores and higher pattern completion scores. Our findings suggest that hippocampal iron deposition may be a pathological mechanism resulting in poorer mnemonic discrimination in later life