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Updated: Jun 18, 2025
Identification of Disease-related Spatial Covariance Patterns using Neuroimaging Data
Published on: June 26, 2013
Neurometabolic topography and associations with cognition in Alzheimer's disease: A whole-brain high-resolution 3D
Jialin Hu1, Miao Zhang2, Yaoyu Zhang1
1National Engineering Research Center of Advanced Magnetic Resonance Technologies for Diagnosis and Therapy, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Introduction:
Altered neurometabolism, detectable via proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI), is spatially heterogeneous and underpins cognitive impairments in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the spatial relationships between neurometabolic topography and cognitive impairment in AD remain unexplored due to technical limitations.
Methods:
We used a novel whole-brain high-resolution 1H-MRSI technique, with simultaneously acquired 18F-florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, to investigate the relationship between neurometabolic topography and cognitive functions in 117 participants, including 22 prodromal AD, 51 AD dementia, and 44 controls.
Results:
Prodromal AD and AD dementia patients exhibited spatially distinct reductions in N-acetylaspartate, and increases in myo-inositol. Reduced N-acetylaspartate and increased myo-inositol were associated with worse global cognitive performance, and N-acetylaspartate correlated with five specific cognitive scores. Neurometabolic topography provides biological insights into diverse cognitive dysfunctions.
Discussion:
Whole-brain high-resolution 1H-MRSI revealed spatially distinct neurometabolic topographies associated with cognitive decline in AD, suggesting potential for noninvasive brain metabolic imaging to track AD progression.
Highlights:
Whole-brain high-resolution 1H-MRSI unveils neurometabolic topography in AD. Spatially distinct reductions in NAA, and increases in mI, are demonstrated. NAA and mI topography correlates with global cognitive performance. NAA topography correlates with specific cognitive performance.
