Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Affects Brain Networks Beyond Memory

Early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may exhibit broader cognitive and sensory-motor dysfunction that is detectable during mild cognitive impairment when memory and attention are affected. Although aging is a primary risk factor for AD, AD-related cognitive dysfunction and aging are associated with unique and dissociable patterns of alterations in large-scale functional brain networks. Network dysfunction could therefore be a valuable marker for Alzheimer’s diagnosis and disease risk assessment.

The researchers performed graph analysis of brain networks in 326 cognitively healthy and 275 cognitively impaired individuals. They compared these models to the participants' clinical dementia rating . . .