Tau pathology in early Alzheimer’s disease is linked to selective disruptions in neurophysiological network dynamics
Publication: Neurobiology of Aging
Ece Kocagoncu, Andrew Quinn, Azadeh Firouzian, Elisa Cooper, Andrea Greve, Roger Gunn, Gary Green, Mark W. Woolrich, Richard N.Henson, Simon Lovestone, James B.Rowe
1 August 2020
Understanding the role of Tau protein aggregation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease is critical for the development of new Tau-based therapeutic strategies to slow or prevent dementia. The researchers tested the hypothesis that Tau pathology is associated with functional organization of widespread neurophysiological networks.
They found that higher Tau burden in early Alzheimer’s disease was associated with a shift away from the optimal small-world organization and a more fragmented network in the beta and gamma bands, whereby parieto-occipital areas were disconnected from the anterior parts of the network.
The results support the translational development of neurophysiological “signatures” of Alzheimer’s disease, to understand disease mechanisms in humans and facilitate experimental medicine studies.