Publications by authors named "Hwamee Oh"

BackgroundPlasma p-tau181 is a promising diagnostic marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, reflecting amyloid accumulation, tau deposition, and downstream neurodegeneration that leads to cognitive impairment. However, the specificity of plasma p-tau181 to AD-related tau pathology remains unclear.ObjectiveTo assess whether plasma p-tau181 is differentially associated with volumetric changes in distinct structures of the hippocampal formation and whether these structures mediate the relationship between plasma p-tau181 and cognition across the AD continuum.

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Several neural mechanisms underlying resilience to Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been proposed, including redundant neural connections between the posterior hippocampi and all other brain regions, and global functional connectivity of the left frontal cortex (LFC). Here, we investigated if functional redundancy of the hippocampus (HC) and LFC underscores neural resilience in the presence of early AD pathologies. From the ADNI database, cognitively normal older adults (CN) (N = 220; 36 % A+) and patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) (N = 143; 51 % A+) were utilized.

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Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technology is widely used for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in people with dementia. Although various computational methods have been proposed for diagnosis of AD using PET images, prediction of disease diagnosis by leveraging longitudinal PET imaging data has not been widely studied. In this paper, we propose novel implementations of deep learning models graph neural network (GNN) and transformer encoder (TE), to leverage longitudinal sequences of PET images in addition to cognitive scores for prediction of AD diagnosis and prediction of conversion from cognitively unimpaired or mild cognitive impairment to AD using data collected in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study.

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Background: Plasma p-tau181 is a promising diagnostic marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, reflecting amyloid accumulation, tau deposition, and downstream neurodegeneration that leads to cognitive impairment. However, the specificity of plasma p-tau181 to AD-related tau pathology remains unclear.

Objective: To assess whether plasma p-tau181 is differentially associated with volumetric changes in distinct hippocampal subfields and whether they mediate the relationship between plasma p-tau181 and cognition across the AD continuum.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study examines the connection between cerebrovascular disease (CVD) biomarkers and amyloid beta (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), finding that certain MRI-based biomarkers like white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) and superficial cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are positively linked to Aβ positivity on PET scans.
  • - Using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the researchers found that after adjustments, both WMHs and superficial CMBs significantly predicted Aβ-PET positivity, while deep CMBs and lacunes showed mixed results depending on cognitive subgroups.
  • - The research supports the use of CVD biomarkers for diagnosing AD and suggests the need for further investigation into
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the link between cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and amyloid-β (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease using MRI-based CVD biomarkers.
  • It analyzed data from 1,352 participants in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and found that white matter hyperintensities and superficial cerebral microbleeds correlated positively with Aβ-PET positivity.
  • The findings suggest that CVD biomarkers could enhance the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, highlighting a need for further research in this area.
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Introduction: Amyloidosis, including cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and markers of small vessel disease (SVD) vary across dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease (DIAD) presenilin-1 (PSEN1) mutation carriers. We investigated how mutation position relative to codon 200 (pre-/postcodon 200) influences these pathologic features and dementia at different stages.

Methods: Individuals from families with known PSEN1 mutations (n = 393) underwent neuroimaging and clinical assessments.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates imaging biomarkers in patients with dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease, using clinical MR images to potentially enhance understanding of the condition without invasive methods.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 525 participants, focusing on how mean and variability in MR signal intensities (FLAIR-μ, T1-σ, FLAIR-σ) changed as patients neared symptom onset, revealing notable patterns linked to disease progression.
  • Findings indicate that increased tau pathology correlates more closely with changes in imaging metrics than amyloid pathology, suggesting tau could be a crucial factor in the development of Alzheimer symptoms.
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Accurate measurement of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in older adults without significant clinical impairment is critical to assessing intervention strategies aimed at slowing AD-related cognitive decline. The U.S.

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Emerging evidence suggests that some personality traits may link to the vulnerability to or protection for Alzheimer's disease (AD). A causal mechanism underlying this relationship, however, remains largely unknown. Using F-Florbetaben positron emission tomography (PET) binding to beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques, a pathological feature of AD, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated pathological and functional correlates of extraversion and neuroticism in a group of healthy young and older subjects.

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Aims: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a gradually progressive neurodegenerative disease that ultimately results in total loss of cognitive and functional independence in older adults. This study aimed to examine the safety and tolerability of disclosure in community-dwelling, cognitively normal (CN) older adults from the Butler Alzheimer's Prevention Registry (BAPR), and to determine whether disclosure impacted participant's decisions to participate in AD clinical research.

Methods: 186 (N = 106 ∊4 non-carriers, 80 ∊4 carriers) CN older adults aged 58-78 from the BAPR completed 2 visits: one for psychological readiness screening and genotyping and one for disclosure.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists used machine learning to find new ways that Alzheimer's disease develops in people with a specific genetic mutation.
  • They studied brain scans from 131 people who had the mutation and 74 who didn't, looking for signs that could help predict the disease.
  • The study found certain brain areas were really good at showing how the disease would change over time, and results showed clear patterns of disease progression in the brains of those with the mutation.
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Defining a signature of cortical regions of interest preferentially affected by Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology may offer improved sensitivity to early AD compared to hippocampal volume or mesial temporal lobe alone. Since late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) participants tend to have age-related comorbidities, the younger-onset age in autosomal dominant AD (ADAD) may provide a more idealized model of cortical thinning in AD. To test this, the goals of this study were to compare the degree of overlap between the ADAD and LOAD cortical thinning maps and to evaluate the ability of the ADAD cortical signature regions to predict early pathological changes in cognitively normal individuals.

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Introduction: Microstructural alterations as assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are key findings in both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and small vessel disease (SVD). We determined the contribution of each of these conditions to diffusion alterations.

Methods: We studied six samples (N = 365 participants) covering the spectrum of AD and SVD, including genetically defined samples.

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Objective: To examine neural correlates of intellectual activity underlying multiple pathways imparting reserve by testing that higher intellectual activity is associated with lower brain amyloid pathology, greater gray matter (GM) volume, and differential task-evoked brain activation levels as a function of amyloid positivity status among clinically intact older adults.

Methods: Eighty-two cognitively normal older adults and 46 healthy young participants underwent fMRI during task switching. All older participants completed F-florbetaben-PET and an individual's amyloid positivity status was determined.

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Alternating between completing two simple tasks, as opposed to completing only one task, has been shown to produce costs to performance and changes to neural patterns of activity, effects which are augmented in old age. Cognitive conflict may arise from factors other than switching tasks, however. Sensorimotor congruency (whether stimulus-response mappings are the same or different for the two tasks) has been shown to behaviorally moderate switch costs in older, but not younger adults.

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Although the brain/behavior correlation is one of the premises of cognitive neuroscience, there is still no consensus about the relationship between brain measures and cognitive function, and only little is known about the effect of age on this relationship. We investigated the age-associated variations on the spatial patterns of cortical thickness correlates of four cognitive domains. We showed that the spatial distribution of the cortical thickness correlates of each cognitive domain is distinctive and depicts varying age-association differences across the adult lifespan.

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SEE HANSSON AND GOURAS DOI101093/AWW146 FOR A SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY ON THIS ARTICLE: Although some brain regions such as precuneus and lateral temporo-parietal cortex have been shown to be more vulnerable to Alzheimer's disease than other areas, a mechanism underlying the differential regional vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease remains to be elucidated. Using fluorodeoxyglucose and Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography imaging glucose metabolism and amyloid-β deposition, we tested whether and how life-long changes in glucose metabolism relate to amyloid-β deposition and Alzheimer's disease-related hypometabolism. Nine healthy young adults (age range: 20-30), 96 cognitively normal older adults (age range: 61-96), and 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease (age range: 50-90) were scanned using fluorodeoxyglucose and Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography.

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Unlabelled: The accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides, a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), has been associated with functional alterations, often in an episodic memory system with a particular emphasis on medial temporal lobe function. The topography of Aβ deposition, however, largely overlaps with frontoparietal control (FPC) regions implicated in cognitive control that has been shown to be impaired in early mild AD. To understand the neural mechanism underlying early changes in cognitive control with AD, we examined the impact of Aβ deposition on task-evoked FPC activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans.

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The accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides, a pathologic hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, has been associated with functional alterations in cognitively normal elderly, most often in the context of episodic memory with a particular emphasis on the medial temporal lobes. The topography of Aβ deposition, however, highly overlaps with frontoparietal control (FPC) regions implicated in cognitive control/working memory. To examine Aβ-related functional alternations in the FPC regions during a working memory task, we imaged 42 young and 57 cognitively normal elderly using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a letter Sternberg task with varying load.

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Recruitment of extra neural resources may allow people to maintain normal cognition despite amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques. Previous fMRI studies have reported such hyperactivation, but it is unclear whether increases represent compensation or aberrant overexcitation. We found that older adults with Aβ deposition had reduced deactivations in task-negative regions, but increased activation in task-positive regions related to more detailed memory encoding.

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Approximately 30% of cognitively normal older adults harbor brain β-amyloid (Aβ), a prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease associated with neural alterations and episodic memory decline. We examined how aging and Aβ deposition affect neural function during memory encoding of visual scenes using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans. Thirty-six cognitively normal older people underwent fMRI scanning, and positron emission tomography with [(11)C] Pittsburgh compound B to measure fibrillar brain Aβ; 15 young subjects were studied with fMRI.

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Importance: Criteria for preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD) propose β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques to initiate neurodegeneration within AD-affected regions. However, some cognitively normal older individuals harbor neural injury similar to patients with AD, without concurrent Aβ burden. Such findings challenge the proposed sequence and suggest that Aβ-independent precursors underlie AD-typical neurodegenerative patterns.

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Objective: We conducted a meta-analysis of relationships between amyloid burden and cognition in cognitively normal, older adult humans.

Methods: Methods of assessing amyloid burden included were CSF or plasma assays, histopathology, and PET ligands. Cognitive domains examined were episodic memory, executive function, working memory, processing speed, visuospatial function, semantic memory, and global cognition.

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