Jason F. Moody1, Douglas C. Dean III1,2,3, Steven R. Kecskemeti3, Jennifer M. Oh4, Nagesh Adluru3, Sterling C. Johnson4,5, Barbara B. Bendlin4, and Andrew L. Alexander1,2,3,6
1Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, 2Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, 3Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, 4Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, 5Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Middleton Memorial VA Hospital, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States, 6Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
We implement Laplacian-regularized
MAP MRI to investigate distinct white matter (WM) microstructural changes
associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Comparisons of
diffusion parameters (via TBSS) between healthy controls and MCI patients
revealed significant group differences in a wide variety of WM pathways previously
shown to be altered in MCI and Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD). In particular, the
MCI group exhibited WM clusters with lower return to origin probability (RTOP)
and return to plane probability (RTPP) magnitudes, suggesting structurally affected
axons in those tracts.
Our findings
provide an early quantitative framework for identifying specific WM microstructural deficiencies
characteristic of MCI and AD.
