Abstract #1641

Identification of Functional Changes in Early Alzheimer Disease Using Resting-State FMRI

Xiaowei Song^1,2, Ryan D'Arcy^1,3, Andrew Ryan McIntyre^1,4, Alma Major^1,2, Steven Beyea^1,5, Kenneth Rockwood^2,6

¹Institute for Biodiagnostics - Atlantic, National Research Council, Halifax, NS, Canada; ²Medicinie, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; ³Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; ⁴Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; ⁵Physics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; ⁶Centre for Health Care for the Elderly, QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada

In this study, we investigated the low-frequency fMRI signal fluctuations during a resting phase to identify changes in the brain associated with AD, using an efficient un-supervised SOM-clustering method. Results indicate altered spontaneous fMRI fluctuations that suggest increased functional activation in certain cortical regions and decreased global functional synchronization connecting many such regions.