Neuronal networks in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that can be clinically characterized by impaired memory and many other cognitive functions. Previous studies have demonstrated that the impairment is accompanied by not only regional brain abnormalities but also changes in neuronal connectivity between anatomically distinct brain regions. Specifically, using neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques as well as advanced graph theory-based computational approaches, several recent studies have suggested that AD patients have disruptive neuronal integrity in large-scale structural and functional brain systems underlying high-level cognition, as demonstrated by a loss of small-world network characteristics. Small world is an attractive model for the description of complex brain networks because it can support both segregated and integrated information processing. The altered small-world organization thus reflects aberrant neuronal connectivity in the AD brain that is most likely to explain cognitive deficits caused by this disease. In this review, we will summarize recent advances in the brain network research on AD, focusing mainly on the large-scale structural and functional descriptions. The literature reviewed here suggests that AD patients are associated with integrative abnormalities in the distributed neuronal networks, which could provide new insights into the disease mechanism in AD and help us to uncover an imaging-based biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of the disease.