Associations Between Brainstem Volume and Alzheimer's Disease Pathology in Middle-Aged Individuals of the Framingham Heart Study

Heidi I L Jacobs*, Adrienne O'Donnell, Claudia L Satizabal, Cristina Lois, Daniel Kojis, Bernard J Hanseeuw, Emma Thibault, Justin S Sanchez, Rachel F Buckley, Qiong Yang, Charles DeCarli, Ron Killiany, Muralidharan Sargurupremraj, Reisa A Sperling, Keith A Johnson, Alexa S Beiser, Sudha Seshadri

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The brainstem is among the first regions to accumulate Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related hyperphosphorylated tau pathology during aging. We aimed to examine associations between brainstem volume and neocortical amyloid-β or tau pathology in 271 middle-aged clinically normal individuals of the Framingham Heart Study who underwent MRI and PET imaging. Lower volume of the medulla, pons, or midbrain was associated with greater neocortical amyloid burden. No associations were detected between brainstem volumes and tau deposition. Our results support the hypothesis that lower brainstem volumes are associated with initial AD-related processes and may signal preclinical AD pathology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1603-1609
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Alzheimer's Disease
Volume86
Issue number4
Early online date21 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • APOE GENOTYPE
  • Aging
  • BINDING
  • COHORT
  • DORSAL RAPHE NUCLEUS
  • LOCUS-COERULEUS
  • MRI
  • PET
  • SEGMENTATION
  • SURFACE-BASED ANALYSIS
  • TAU
  • amyloid
  • brainstem
  • tau

Cite this