Imaging Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease Using Magnetic Resonance Microscopy
A better understanding of how the brain's structure and connections give rise to motivation and behavior will lead to better therapies for psychiatric and neurological conditions, including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows us to evaluate how these metrics change in various brain regions, providing multivariate biomarkers to understand multifactorial diseases such as AD. In this chapter, the authors examine the main AD biomarkers and how these are represented in imaging studies using small animal models. They focus on MRI biomarkers including volume and texture properties related to iron metabolism, cellular density, and myelin properties, as well as from diffusion-weighted-derived parameters and tractography. The authors examine how combining MRI biomarkers may increase the predictive values of image-based models for behavioral traits typical of AD patients. Several networks have been mapped to the brain and characterized by distinct functional profiles, e.g. sensory perception, movement, attention, and cognition.
