title: A novel approach of groupwise fMRI-guided tractography allowing to characterize the clinical evolution of Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: Guiding diffusion tract-based anatomy by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we aim to investigate the relationship between structural connectivity and functional activity in the human brain. To this purpose, we introduced a novel groupwise fMRI-guided tractographic approach, that was applied on a population ranging between prodromic and moderate stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study comprised of 15 subjects affected by amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), 14 diagnosed with AD and 14 elderly healthy adults who were used as controls. By creating representative (ensemble) functionally guided tracts within each group of participants, our methodology highlighted the white matter fiber connections involved in verbal fluency functions for a specific population, and hypothesized on brain compensation mechanisms that potentially counteract or reduce cognitive impairment symptoms in prodromic AD. Our hope is that this fMRI-guided tractographic approach could have potential impact in various clinical studies, while investigating white/gray matter connectivity, in both health and disease.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy; Politecnico di Milano, Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Giulia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Preti
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology Services, Center for Neural Systems Investigations, Center for Morphometric Analysis, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Makris
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology Services, Center for Neural Systems Investigations, Center for Morphometric Analysis, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Marcella
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Laganà
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy; Politecnico di Milano, Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Ludovica
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Griffanti
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clerici
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaello
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nemni
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Carl-Fredrik
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Westin
authors.affiliation: Politecnico di Milano, Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baselli
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baglio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003710:Demography; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis