In the study of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), scientists from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have accomplished an important breakthrough. A team led by Andreana Benitez and Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza deployed a cutting-edge brain imaging analysis method to create unique maps of brain activity in a research that was published in the journal Brain Connectivity. The researchers next looked at connections between minor alterations in brain activity and cognitive function in older persons with preclinical AD.
Amyloid-beta protein deposition in the brain is one of the early signs of AD or preclinical AD. It is difficult to investigate the early stages of the disease in these people since they don’t exhibit any signs of cognitive loss.
The researchers deployed the personalized functional connectome, a more recent and more sensitive method of picture processing, to find these minor impacts. Conventional functional connectomes are the functioning brain areas using an average of the brains of many different people. This approach, in contrast, may provide a personalized brain fingerprint by revealing the distinct patterns of brain activation for every person.
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The 149 healthy subjects, ranging in age from 45 to 85, were assessed by the researchers. Everyone performed brain PET scans, and those who had and did not have early amyloid-beta protein deposition seen on the scans were separated into two groups. Moreover, MRI scans were performed on the subjects to create brain fingerprints.
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Researchers discovered that participants with amyloid-beta deposition, or preclinical AD, had impaired information processing as a result of specific abnormalities in their brain fingerprints. When there was too much activity on the brain’s highways or higher than the typical connection between networks, information processing was impaired. On the other hand, those with more within-network connection, or more brain activity inside critical brain neighborhoods, performed better while processing information.
This equilibrium can be disrupted in preclinical AD, when the amyloid buildup is prevalent in the brain, according to Fountain-Zaragoza. This could result in information not being processed as well.
The findings of this research will contribute to the creation of more efficient treatments as well as assist us in better understand how AD develops and advances. 50 million individuals around the globe are estimated to have Alzheimer’s disease or some kind of dementia, and by 2050, experts expect that figure to have quadrupled. Hence, research into AD is given significant attention by both the scientific community and society at large.
