Functional Network Alterations Associated with Cognition in Pre-Clinical Alzheimer's Disease

Objective: Accumulation of cerebral amyloid-β (Aβ) is a risk factor for cognitive decline and defining feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ is implicated in brain network disruption, but the extent to which these changes correspond with observable cognitive deficits in pre-clinical AD has not been tested. This study utilized individual-specific functional parcellations to sensitively evaluate the relationship between network connectivity and cognition in adults with and without Aβ deposition. Participants and Methods: Cognitively unimpaired adults ages 45–85 completed amyloid positron emission tomography, resting-state-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and neuropsychological tests of episodic memory and executive function (EF). Participants in the upper tertile of mean standard uptake value ratio were considered Aβ+ (n = 50) while others were Aβ− (n = 99). Individualized functional network parcellations were generated from resting-state fMRI data. We examined the effects of group, network, and group-by-network interactions on memory and EF. Results: We observed several interactions such that within the Aβ+ group, preserved network integrity (i.e., greater connectivity within specific networks) was associated with better cognition, whereas network desegregation (i.e., greater connectivity between relative to within networks) was associated with worse cognition. This dissociation was most apparent for cognitive networks (frontoparietal, dorsal and ventral attention, limbic, and default mode), with connectivity relating to EF in the Aβ+ group specifically. Conclusions: Using an innovative approach to constructing individual-specified resting-state functional connectomes, we were able to detect differences in brain-cognition associations in pre-clinical AD. Our findings provide novel insight into specific functional network alterations occurring in the presence of Aβ that relate to cognitive function in asymptomatic individuals. Elevated cerebral amyloid-β is a biomarker of pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). Associations between amyloidosis, functional network disruption, and cognitive impairment are evident in the later stages of AD, but these effects have not been substantiated in pre-clinical AD. Using individual-specific parcellations that maximally localize functional networks, we identify network alterations that relate to cognition in pre-clinical AD that have not been previously reported. We demonstrate that these effects localize to networks implicated in cognition. Our findings suggest that there may be subtle, amyloid-related alterations in the functional connectome that are detectable in pre-clinical AD, with potential implications for cognition in asymptomatic individuals.