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Lifelong experiences as a proxy of cognitive reserve moderate the association between connectivity and cognition in Alzheimer's disease.

Neurobiology of aging

Authors: Ersin Ersoezlue, Boris-Stephan Rauchmann, Thomas Schneider-Axmann, Michael Wagner, Tommaso Ballarini, Maia Tato, Julia Utecht, Carolin Kurz, Boris Papazov, Selim Guersel, Lena Burow, Gabriele Koller, Sophia Stöcklein, Daniel Keeser, Claudia Bartels, Frederic Brosseron, Katharina Buerger, Arda C Cetindag, Peter Dechent, Laura Dobisch, Michael Ewers, Klaus Fliessbach, Ingo Frommann, John D Haynes, Michael T Heneka, Daniel Janowitz, Ingo Kilimann, Luca Kleinedam, Christoph Laske, Franziska Maier, Coraline D Metzger, Matthias H Munk, Oliver Peters, Lukas Preis, Josef Priller, Alfredo Ramirez, Sandra Roeske, Nina Roy, Klaus Scheffler, Anja Schneider, Annika Spottke, Eike J Spruth, Stefan Teipel, Jens Wiltfang, Steffen Wolfsgruber, Renat Yakupov, Emrah Duezel, Frank Jessen, Robert Perneczky

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with alterations in functional connectivity (FC) of the brain. The FC underpinnings of CR, that is, lifelong experiences, are largely unknown. Resting-state FC and structural MRI were performed in 76 CSF amyloid-β (Aβ) negative healthy controls and 152 Aβ positive individuals as an AD spectrum cohort (ADS; 55 with subjective cognitive decline, SCD; 52 with mild cognitive impairment; 45 with AD dementia). Following a region-of-interest (ROI) FC analysis, intrinsic network connectivity within the default-mode network (INC-DMN) and anti-correlation in INC between the DMN and dorsal attention network (DMN:DAN) were obtained as composite scores. CR was estimated by education and Lifetime Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ). The association between INC-DMN and MEM was attenuated by higher LEQ scores in the entire ADS group, particularly in SCD. In ROI analyses, higher LEQ scores were associated with higher FC within the DMN in ADS group. INC-DMN remains relatively intact despite memory decline in individuals with higher lifetime activity estimates, supporting a role for functional networks in maintaining cognitive function in AD.

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PMID: 36476760

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