Abstract #0683

Anatomical Connectivity to Assess Brain Tissue Modifications in Alzheimers Disease

Marco Bozzali¹, Geoff Parker², Laura Serra¹, Roberta Perri³, Franco Giubilei⁴, Camillo Marra⁵, Carlo Caltagirone³, Mara Cercignani¹

¹Neuroimaging Laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; ²Imaging Science & Biomedical Engineering, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom; ³Department of Clinical & Behavioural Neurology, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; ⁴Department of Neurology, II Faculty of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome; ⁵Institute of Neurology, Universit Cattolica, Rome, Italy

A recent application of anatomical connectivity mapping (ACM) to Alzheimers disease (AD) patients, has shown expected reductions as well as unexpected increases of structural brain connectivity. The latter finding was interpreted as a possible consequence of processes of brain plasticity driven by treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs). Here, we confirm and extend all preliminary findings by assessing ACM in a larger group of patients with AD, half of them under ChEIs medication and half drug nave. This study further supports the hypothesis that ChEIs induce mechanisms of plasticity in AD brains, which may also interact with measures of global cognition.