The apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4) is the major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer Disease (AD). APOE4 may have effects on cognition and brain atrophy years before the onset of symptomatic AD. We analyzed the effects of APOE4 in a unique cohort of young adults who had undergone comprehensive assessments as part of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), an international longitudinal study of individuals from families with Autosomal Dominant AD. We analyzed the effect of an APOE4 allele on cognitive measures, volumetric MRI, amyloid deposition, glucose metabolism and on cerebrospinal fluid levels of AD biomarkers in 162 participants that did not carry the mutant gene (non-carriers). APOE4+ and APOE4− mutation non-carriers had similar performance on cognitive measures. Amyloid deposition began

The hippocampus has been extensively studied in various neuropsychiatric disorders throughout the lifespan. However, inconsistent results have been reported with respect to which subfield volumes are most related to age. Here, we investigate whether these discrepancies may be explained by experimental design differences that exist between studies. Multiple datasets were used to collect 1690 magnetic resonance scans from healthy individuals aged 18-95 years old. Standard T1-weighted (T1w; MPRAGE sequence, 1 mm 3 voxels), high-resolution T2-weighted (T2w; SPACE sequence, 0.64 mm 3 voxels) and slab T2-weighted (Slab; 2D turbo spin echo, 0.4 x 0.4 x 2 mm 3 voxels) images were acquired. The MAGeT Brain algorithm was used for segmentation of the hippocampal grey matter (GM) subfields and peri-hippocampal white matter (WM) subregions. Linear mixed-effect models and Akaike information criterion were used to examine linear, second or third order natural splines relationship between hippocampal volumes and age. We demonstrated that stratum radiatum/lacunosum/moleculare and fornix subregions expressed the highest relative volumetric decrease, while the cornus ammonis 1 presented a relative volumetric preservation of its volume with age. We also found that volumes extracted from slab images were often underestimated and demonstrated different age-related relationships compared to volumes extracted from T1w and T2w images. The current work suggests that although T1w, T2w and slab derived subfield volumetric outputs are largely homologous, modality choice plays a meaningful role in the volumetric estimation of the hippocampal subfields.

No abstract

No abstract

Many magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indices are being studied longitudinally to explore topics such as biomarker detection and clinical staging. A pertinent concern to longitudinal work is MRI scanner upgrades. When upgrades occur during the course of a longitudinal MRI neuroimaging investigation, there may be an impact on the compatibility of pre-and postupgrade measures. Similarly, subject motion is another issue that may be detrimental to longitudinal MRI work; however, embedding volumetric navigators (vNavs) within acquisition sequences has emerged as a technique that allows for prospective motion correction. Our research group recently implemented an upgrade from a Siemens MAGNETOM 3T Trio system to a Siemens MAGNETOM 3T Prisma Fit system. The goals of the current work were to: 1) investigate the impact of this upgrade on commonly used structural imaging measures and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy indices ("Prisma Upgrade protocol") and 2) examine structural imaging measures in a sequence with vNavs alongside a standard acquisition sequence ("vNav protocol"). In both protocols, while high reliability was observed for most of the investigated MRI outputs, suboptimal reliability was observed for certain indices. Across the scanner upgrade, increases in frontal, temporal, and cingulate cortical thickness (CT) and thalamus volume, along with decreases in parietal CT, amygdala, globus pallidus, hippocampus, and striatum volumes were observed across the Prisma upgrade, and were linked to increases in signal-to-noise ratios. No significant impact of the upgrade was found in 1 H-MRS analyses. Further, CT estimates were found to be larger in MPRAGE acquisitions compared to vNav-MPRAGE acquisitions mainly within temporal areas, while the opposite was found mostly in parietal brain regions. The results from this work should be considered in longitudinal study designs and comparable prospective motion correction investigations are warranted in cases of marked head movement.

No abstract

Statistical effects of cortical metrics derived from standard T1‐ and T2‐weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images, such as gray–white matter contrast (GWC), boundary sharpness coefficient (BSC), T1‐weighted/T2‐weighted ratio (T1w/T2w), and cortical thickness (CT), are often interpreted as representing or being influenced by intracortical myelin content with little empirical evidence to justify these interpretations. We first examined spatial correspondence with more biologically specific microstructural measures, and second compared between‐marker age‐related trends with the underlying hypothesis that different measures primarily driven by similar changes in myelo‐ and microstructural underpinnings should be highly related. Cortical MRI markers were derived from MRI images of 127 healthy subjects, aged 18–81, using cortical surfaces that were generated with the CIVET 2.1.0 pipeline. Their gross spatial distributions were compared with gene expression‐derived cell‐type densities, histology‐derived cytoarchitecture, and quantitative R1 maps acquired on a subset of participants. We then compared between‐marker age‐related trends in their shape, direction, and spatial distribution of the linear age effect. The gross anatomical distributions of cortical MRI markers were, in general, more related to myelin and glial cells than neuronal indicators. Comparing MRI markers, our results revealed generally high overlap in spatial distribution (i.e., group means), but mostly divergent age trajectories in the shape, direction, and spatial distribution of the linear age effect. We conclude that the microstructural properties at the source of spatial distributions of MRI cortical markers can be different from microstructural changes that affect these markers in aging.

No abstract