9,178 results match your criteria: "Otto von Guericke University[Affiliation]"
J Neurosci
January 2025
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg 39120, Germany
The precuneus is a site of early amyloid-beta (Aβ) accumulation. Previous cross-sectional studies reported increased precuneus fMRI activity in older adults with mild cognitive deficits or elevated Aβ. However, longitudinal studies in early Alzheimer's disease (AD) are lacking and the relationship to the Apolipoprotein-E () genotype is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMatrix Biol
January 2025
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (CBBS), Magdeburg, Germany; Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. Electronic address:
The neural extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulates in the form of perineuronal nets (PNNs), particularly around fast-spiking GABAergic interneurons in the cortex and hippocampus, but also around synapses and in association with the axon initial segments (AIS) and nodes of Ranvier. Increasing evidence highlights the role of Neurocan (Ncan), a brain-specific component of ECM, in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Ncan localizes at PNNs, perisynaptically, and at the nodes of Ranvier and the AIS, highlighting its potential role in regulating axonal excitability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Medical Faculty, Department of Neurology, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
For the last 38 years, all neuroprotective agents for patients with ischemic stroke have failed in clinical trials. The innate immune system, particularly microglia, is a much-discussed target for neuroprotective agents. Promising results for neuroprotection by inhibition of integrins with drugs such as natalizumab in animal stroke models have not been translated into clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Speech abnormalities are increasingly recognized as a manifestation of cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and its preclinical and prodromal stages. Here, we investigated whether MRI measures of brain atrophy, specifically in the basal forebrain and cortical language areas, can predict cognitive decline and speech difficulties in older adults within the AD spectrum.
Method: The ongoing Prospect‐AD study aims to develop an algorithm to automatically identify speech biomarkers in individuals with early signs of AD.
Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), in the absence of objective cognitive impairment, may be the first symptomatic manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies have suggested that its combination with amyloid‐positivity (Aβ+) may represent stage 2 AD, and is associated with a higher risk of future cognitive decline. Here, we aim to (1) confirm this using the plasma Aβ42/40 ratio, and (2) test whether the addition of plasma phospho‐tau181 (ptau, a marker of Aβ and tau pathology) could help refine the prediction of future cognitive decline in SCD patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Differences in task‐fMRI activation have recently been found to be related to neuropathological hallmarks of AD. However, the evolution of fMRI‐based activation throughout AD disease progression and its relationship with other biomarkers remains elusive. Applying a disease progression model (DPM) to a multicentric cohort with up to four annual task‐fMRI visits, we hope to provide a deeper insight into these relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The posterior‐medial network is crucial for episodic memory. However, the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and posteromedial cortex (PMC) regions are vulnerable to aging and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Both processes might elicit distinct early functional connectivity (FC) changes which could be detrimental or protective/ compensatory regarding cognition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: While some memory decline in old age is “normal”, there are some older individuals with maintained high cognitive performance. Using a multimodal approach including neuroimaging, fitness, genetic and questionnaire data (Figure 1A), we aimed to identify factors that are related to successful cognitive aging and whether these differ between sexes.
Method: We analyzed 165 cognitively normal older adults age ≥ 60 years from an ongoing study (SFB1436) (age=71±8years, 43% female).
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Background: To date, all computerised perivascular spaces (PVS) quantification methods require case‐wise, imaging modality, or study‐specific parameter adjustments, and suffer from generalisability problems in clinical settings, and misdetection of other cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) markers. We propose a deep learning‐based PVS detection method to overcome these issues. We compare our proposal on magnetic resonance imaging data of CSVD participants against the performance of the Frangi filter.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Memory clinic patients are a heterogeneous population representing various aetiologies of pathological aging. It is unknown if divergent spatiotemporal progression patterns of brain atrophy, as previously described in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients, are prevalent and clinically meaningful in this group of older adults.
Method: To uncover atrophy subtypes, we applied the Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn) algorithm to structural MRI data from 813 participants (mean ± SD age = 70.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Training studies report beneficial effects of physical (PP) on cognitive performance (COG) in older adults, but are often accompanied by potentially biased parameters, conclusions, and lack of directionality. To address these issues, we used a dynamic Bayesian approach to analyse the dynamic session‐to‐session change and coupling of PP and COG over time.
Methods: We used two studies (N = 17 each): Study 1 contained 24‐weeks (72 sessions) of training of older adults with suspected Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto‐von‐Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
Background: For over three decades, the concomitance of cortical neurodegeneration and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) has sparked discussion about their coupled temporal dynamics (Garnier‐Crussard et al. 2023). Longitudinal evidence supporting this hypothesis remains nonetheless scarce (Ter Telgte et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Perivascular spaces (PVS) can become large enough to be visible in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The exact aetiology of PVS enlargement in humans remains, however, elusive and under continuous debate [1‐5]. Here, we tracked PVS volumes longitudinally over three years in 525 individuals along AD syndromal cognitive stages, namely cognitively unimpaired (CU), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), to pinpoint conditions related to PVS enlargement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rostock University Medical Center, Rostock, Germany
Background: Drugs with desirable and undesirable anticholinergic effects influence cognitive performance and increase the risk of dementia later in life. MRI imaging studies showed structural effect of these substances on basal forebrain and hippocampus, key regions of Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
Methods: We analyzed data from 787 participants of the DELCODE study with a diagnosis of subjective cognitive impairment (SCD), mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease dementia, 1st degree relatives of people with dementia and cognitively healthy controls.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Rostock, Germany
Background: Analysis of neuroimaging data based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can improve detection of clinically relevant characteristics of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previously, our group developed a CNN‐based approach for detecting AD via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and for identifying features that are relevant to the decision of the network. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the potential utility of applying this approach to MRI scans to assist in the identification of individuals at high risk for amyloid positivity to aid in the selection of study samples and case finding for treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cologne, Medical Faculty, Cologne, Germany
Background: Late‐life depression (LLD) is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia. Previous morphological studies have often associated LLD with atrophy within the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus. A number of previous studies have demonstrated the changes in several MTL subfields in LLD, such as the perirhinal cortex (PrC), cornu ammonis (CA), dentate gyrus (DG), subiculum and entorhinal cortex (EC), but with inconsistent results, which may be explained by the relatively low image resolution of the 3T scanner used in the previous studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Mnemonic discrimination tasks (MDTs) hold potential for early detection of memory changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Object and scene processing tasks differently tap into memory networks vulnerable to early tau and amyloid pathology, respectively. We used an object and scene MDT to assess longitudinal effects of AD on distinct functional memory networks and investigate their potential as markers for different disease stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Background: Locus coeruleus (LC) is a primary source of noradrenalin in the brain and plays a complex role in human behavior. In healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), LC cell loss has been linked to a decline in overall cognitive function. This study aimed to explore age‐ and AD‐related differences in a proxy measure of LC activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Inadequate glymphatic clearance through perivascular spaces (PVS) is hypothesized to contribute to the formation of white matter hyperintensities (WMH). However, longitudinal evidence for such a mechanistic link in aging remains limited. Using multivariate modelling, we investigated the interrelationship between PVS and WMH over time to elucidate potential cascades of early cerebrovascular alterations and tested whether AD‐biomarkers and inflammatory markers associated with vascular disease can explain individual variability in their occurrence and progression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Roche Pharma AG, Grenzach‐Wyhlen, Baden‐Württemberg, Germany
Background: The timely diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Alzheimer’s disease is challenging in routine care due to the complexity and time burden of required cognitive assessments. New unsupervised digital remote assessment tools could adress this challenge.
Method: The multicentric healthcare study “re.
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Memory decline, which is especially prevalent in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), has been studied via fMRI, primarily focusing on the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. However, emerging evidence suggests that the brainstem, alongside various midbrain regions, is an initial target for pathological processes like hyperphosphorylated TAU protein accumulation. Among these, the locus coeruleus, a noradrenergic nucleus in the pons, projects to critical midbrain areas supporting memory encoding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Episodic memory declines in old age. Successful memory relies on the process of mnemonic discrimination (MD) to establish distinct representations. However, the scope for improvement in older adults’ cognitive performance using cognitive training is poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Background: The Locus Coeruleus (LC) is prominently affected by neuronal loss in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Assessing LC integrity can serve as an important early biomarker for assessing AD progression. Neuromelanin (NM) accumulates in LC neurons and NM imaging has therefore been proposed as a means of imaging the LC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto‐von‐Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Previous studies have examined the impact of post‐traumatic stress disorder and chronic stress on the Locus Coeruleus‐Noradrenergic System (LC‐NA) revealing significant neurobiological alterations (Aston‐Jones & Cohen, 2005; McCall et al., 2015). However, while animal studies have yielded valuable insights regarding the effects of traumatic experiences on the LC‐NA system, translation to human models remains relatively underexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement
December 2024
Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto‐von‐Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
Background: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a progressively worsening neurodegenerative disorder, impacts millions globally. Understanding its progression is crucial for developing effective interventions and management strategies. However, high variability in disease progression amongst individuals and the complexity of neuroimaging data pose significant challenges.
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