The cortical signature of Alzheimer's disease: regionally specific cortical thinning relates to symptom severity in very mild to mild AD dementia and is detectable in asymptomatic amyloid-positive individuals.

ABSTRACT: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with neurodegeneration in vulnerable limbic and heteromodal regions of the cerebral cortex, detectable in vivo using magnetic resonance imaging. It is not clear whether abnormalities of cortical anatomy in AD can be reliably measured across different subject samples, how closely they track symptoms, and whether they are detectable prior to symptoms. An exploratory map of cortical thinning in mild AD was used to define regions of interest that were applied in a hypothesis-driven fashion to other subject samples. Results demonstrate a reliably quantifiable in vivo signature of abnormal cortical anatomy in AD, which parallels known regional vulnerability to AD neuropathology. Thinning in vulnerable cortical regions relates to symptom severity even in the

SUBMITTER: Dickerson BC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2638813 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature