Association of Superficial White Matter Microstructure With Cortical Pathology Deposition Across Early Stages of the...

β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau, 2 prominent pathologies of Alzheimer disease (AD), originate in cortical regions and primarily affect, and even spread along, the white matter tracts directly connected to these cortical regions. Superficial white matter (SWM), containing short-range association connections beneath the cortex, has been affected in mild cognitive impairment and AD, with gaps in understanding the disease's early stages. We perform a detailed investigation of individual SWM connections with cortical pathology deposition and cognition in the early stages of the AD continuum.

We enroll participants with Aβ PET, tau PET, diffusion MRI, and cognitive status from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS). We stratify participants into disease stages following the Aβ/tau (AT) framework. We use diffusion MRI tractography to analyze SWM fiber clusters and assess their microstructure through free-water modeling, identifying significant differences between pathologically staged groups. We investigate associations of diffusion measures in SWM fiber clusters with regional pathology deposition (Aβ- and tau- PET uptake) and cognition.

The study includes 150 ADNI participants (mean age 73.6 years, 61.3% female) and 175 HABS participants (mean age 75.6 years, 61.1% female). We find the following: (1) SWM microstructure differs along the early-stage Alzheimer disease continuum, with primary abnormalities in posterior brain regions; (2) there are significant free-water alterations in cognitively intact but pathology-positive individuals (p < 0.05, false discovery rate [FDR] corrected); (3) associations are identified between free water in SWM connections and proximal pathologic deposition, as well as between free water in several connections and memory function (standardized β coefficient = [-0.297 to -0.352], all p < 0.05, FDR corrected); and (iv) free water of a temporal SWM connection mediates the impact of temporal tau on memory (95% CI = [-0.146 to -0.002], accounts for 15.0% of the total effect).

The findings of this study suggest that the propagation of AD pathology and cognitive changes may involve SWM pathways even in the early stages, emphasizing the importance of SWM in developing AD therapies and early interventions.