Network-selective vulnerability of the human cerebellum to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia

Guo, Christine C., Tan, Rachel, Hodges, John R., Hu, Xintao, Sami, Saber and Hornberger, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2214-3788 (2016) Network-selective vulnerability of the human cerebellum to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Brain, 139 (5). pp. 1527-1538. ISSN 0006-8950

Preview

PDF (Accepted manuscript) - Accepted Version Download (404kB) | Preview

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are associated with distinct and distributed patterns of atrophy in the cerebral cortex. Emerging evidence suggests that these atrophy patterns resemble intrinsic connectivity networks in the healthy brain, supporting the network-based degeneration framework where neuropathology spreads across connectivity networks. An intriguing yet untested possibility is that the cerebellar circuits, which share extensive connections with the cerebral cortex, could be selectively targeted by major neurodegenerative diseases. Here we examined the structural atrophy in the cerebellum across common types of neurodegenerative diseases, and characterized the functional connectivity patterns of these cerebellar atrophy regions. Our results showed that Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia are associated with distinct and circumscribed atrophy in the cerebellum. These cerebellar atrophied regions share robust and selective intrinsic connectivity with the atrophied regions in the cerebral cortex. These findings for the first time demonstrated the selective vulnerability of the cerebellum to common neurodegenerative disease, extending the network-based degeneration framework to the cerebellum. Our work also has direct implications on the cerebellar contribution to the cognitive and affective processes that are compromised in neurodegeneration as well as the practice of using the cerebellum as reference region for ligand neuroimaging studies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	intrinsic connectivity,cerebellum,neurodegeneration,selective vulnerability,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Mar 2016 09:19
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 01:34
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57709
DOI:	10.1093/brain/aww003

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item