New research finds subtle brain changes in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s patients
CTV
A new peer-reviewed study from the Medical University of South Carolina report in Brain Connectivity has found individualized brain fingerprints which can help diagnose early Alzheimer's disease.
A new peer-reviewed study from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Brain Connectivity has found individualized brain “fingerprints” which can help diagnose early Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in pre-symptomatic patients.
Using an innovative brain imaging technique, the neuroscientists conducting the research could visualize subtle brain changes in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's patients, which could help determine how the disease begins and progresses.
“Prior studies have not found an association between brain function and behavior in preclinical AD,” said Andreana Benitez, Ph.D., one of the study researchers, in a press release. “Using these individualized maps of brain function, we found a potential brain-based reason for very subtle cognitive changes in this early phase of the disease.”
The team used a new technique called “the individualized functional connectome” which was developed by their collaborator, Hesheng Liu, Ph.D, to analyze the brain images.
This highly sensitive technique is able to show unique brain patterns for each individual, something that traditional methods cannot do.
“We all have the same functional parts of our brain, but they're positioned slightly differently, sort of like a fingerprint,” said Stephanie Fountain-Zaragoza, Ph.D, another one of the study researchers, in a press release. “This method creates an individualized brain fingerprint that more accurately reflects where the different functional regions are in each individual’s brain.”
The team of neuroscientists applied this method to a group of 149 research participants, ages 45 to 85, who did not have signs of cognitive decline.
