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Updated: May 31, 2026

Generalized Psychophysiological Interaction (PPI) Analysis of Memory Related Connectivity in Individuals at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease
Published on: November 14, 2017
Which SPM method should be used to extract hippocampal measures in early Alzheimer's disease?
Katell Mevel1, Béatrice Desgranges, Jean-Claude Baron
1Inserm-EPHE-Université de Caen/Basse-Normandie, Unité U923, GIP Cyceron, CHU Côte de Nacre, Caen, France.
Background And Purpose:
To provide guidance regarding the most appropriate voxel-based morphometry (VBM)-derived method for assessing hippocampal atrophy in early Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Methods:
T1-MRI volume data were collected in 23 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 18 controls. Three types of data (unmodulated and 2 types of modulated MRI) and 2 extraction methods (with reference to the hippocampal peak of atrophy identified from a preliminary whole-brain analysis, or using a template region of interest-ROI-approach) were compared to the gold-standard individual ROI (ROI-i) method through 2 statistical approaches (ANOVA and Pearson's R).
Results:
First, whole-brain analyses performed on modulated data are as sensitive as the ROI-i approach in detecting aMCI patients' hippocampal atrophy. Second, values extracted from the ROI-template applied to modulated data provide measures of hippocampal volume comparable to those obtained using the ROI-i approach.
Conclusions:
This study provides guidance on how to extract accurate hippocampal measures from VBM-derived data in early AD, as a time-saving and easy alternative to the reference ROI-i method.
