Xiaowei Song1,2, Ryan D'Arcy1,3, Andrew Ryan McIntyre1,4, Alma Major1,2, Steven Beyea1,5, Kenneth Rockwood2,6
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.