Jacob Vogel, associate senior lecturer and head of a research group, and part of the strategic research area MultiPark at Lund University.
Image source: Lund University; photo: Ingemar Hultquist
Aging and Alzheimer’s pathology often occur at the same time, but the researchers’ findings suggest that their effects on brain function are not simply different degrees of the same process but rather develop as distinct patterns. In Alzheimer’s disease, communication patterns became more similar in higher-order brain regions involved in functions such as memory, while sensory and motor regions became more distinct. Normal aging showed a different pattern, with regions involved in executive functions becoming more similar and other regions more distinct. Jacob Vogel thinks that their findings propose a conceptual shift: “Rather than treating connectivity increases and decreases as isolated effects in individual brain regions, our results suggest that they need to be interpreted as parts of larger patterns shaped by the brain’s underlying organization.”
Before connectivity patterns may be used to distinguish between Alzheimer’s and normal brain aging, the group-level patterns found in the present study have to be confirmed in individual-level measures to see whether they predict subsequent cognitive decline. This work is ongoing.
In the present study, the connectivity pattern was more strongly related to cognitive function than to the accumulation of the Alzheimer’s-related proteins amyloid-beta and tau in people with cognitive impairments. In the longer term, these connectivity patterns could potentially help identify brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s before clear brain shrinkage or cognitive symptoms emerge. Monitoring brain connectivity could also be useful to evaluate effects of various interventions. Jacob Vogel is optimistic, as brain function is modifiable, for example through brain stimulation, cognitive tasks, or medication.
“If we can determine the downstream consequences of these connectivity patterns, for example if they reflect harmful system-level stress, this could eventually point toward ways of modulating them therapeutically, for example through non-invasive brain stimulation” he concludes.
Source: Lund University