Journal Article DZNE-2026-00953

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Diagnostic Images for Mild Cognitive Impairment Are Sensitive to Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers and Reveal Abnormal Scene Processing.

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2026
MIT Pr. Journals Cambridge, Mass.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience 38(10), 1884 - 1896 () [10.1162/JOCN.a.2636]

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Abstract: Research on visual episodic memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease often focuses on memory processes rather than the specific content of the images being remembered. We previously showed that patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a transitional stage that may precede Alzheimer's disease, can memorize certain images well, indicating that episodic memory is not uniformly impaired. Conversely, other specific images could not be memorized by MCI patients and were instead diagnostic for distinguishing MCI from healthy older adults. In this study, we investigate whether poor memory for these diagnostic images relates to impaired neural processing in specific brain regions and Alzheimer's biomarker pathology. We assessed 64 healthy controls and 48 MCI participants from the DZNE Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study. Participants performed a visual scene memory task during fMRI and provided cerebrospinal fluid biomarker data for amyloid and tau. Diagnostic images demonstrated significantly larger behavior-biomarker correlations (total tau, phospho-tau, Aβ42/Aβ40, and Aβ42/phospho-tau) compared with nondiagnostic images. This suggests memory for these specific diagnostic images is more affected by Alzheimer's disease pathology. The fMRI data revealed an interaction effect between group membership (healthy control/MCI) and image diagnosticity (diagnostic/nondiagnostic). MCI participants exhibited higher activation in scene-processing regions (parahippocampal place area, retrosplenial cortex, and occipital place area) for diagnostic compared with nondiagnostic images. Healthy controls, however, showed no processing differences between diagnostic and nondiagnostic images. These findings suggest MCI individuals may engage in inefficiently heightened encoding activation for diagnostic images. Our results show that special 'diagnostic' images exist that can reliably reveal underlying amyloid and tau pathology alongside altered neural activity in scene regions.

Keyword(s): Humans (MeSH) ; Cognitive Dysfunction: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Cognitive Dysfunction: physiopathology (MeSH) ; Cognitive Dysfunction: diagnostic imaging (MeSH) ; Cognitive Dysfunction: diagnosis (MeSH) ; Cognitive Dysfunction: psychology (MeSH) ; Female (MeSH) ; Male (MeSH) ; Alzheimer Disease: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Alzheimer Disease: physiopathology (MeSH) ; Alzheimer Disease: diagnostic imaging (MeSH) ; Alzheimer Disease: diagnosis (MeSH) ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MeSH) ; Aged (MeSH) ; tau Proteins: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Amyloid beta-Peptides: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Biomarkers: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Brain: physiopathology (MeSH) ; Brain: diagnostic imaging (MeSH) ; Peptide Fragments: cerebrospinal fluid (MeSH) ; Neuropsychological Tests (MeSH) ; Aged, 80 and over (MeSH) ; Memory, Episodic (MeSH) ; Longitudinal Studies (MeSH) ; tau Proteins ; Amyloid beta-Peptides ; Biomarkers ; Peptide Fragments ; amyloid beta-protein (1-42) ; amyloid beta-protein (1-40)

Classification:

Contributing Institute(s):
  1. Biomarker-Assisted Early Detection of Dementias (AG Peters)
  2. Translational Neuropsychiatry (AG Priller)
  3. Translational Dementia Research (Bonn) (AG Schneider)
  4. Patient Studies (Bonn) (Patient Studies (Bonn))
  5. Molecular biomarkers for predictive diagnostics of neurodegenerative diseases (AG Wiltfang)
  6. Clinical Neurophysiology and Memory (AG Düzel)
  7. Clinical Dementia Research (Rostock /Greifswald) (AG Teipel)
  8. Parkinson Genetics (AG Gasser)
  9. Clinical Research Platform (CRP) (AG Spottke)
  10. Neuroinflammation, Biomarker (AG Heneka)
  11. Neuropsychology (AG Wagner)
  12. Clinical Alzheimer’s Disease Research (AG Jessen)
Research Program(s):
  1. 353 - Clinical and Health Care Research (POF4-353) (POF4-353)

Database coverage:
Medline ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Life Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Social Sciences Citation Index ; Web of Science Core Collection
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The record appears in these collections:
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-Patient Studies (Bonn)
Document types > Articles > Journal Article
Institute Collections > GÖ DZNE > GÖ DZNE-AG Wiltfang
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-AG Schneider
Institute Collections > ROS DZNE > ROS DZNE-AG Teipel
Institute Collections > TÜ DZNE > TÜ DZNE-AG Gasser
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-AG Spottke
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-AG Jessen
Institute Collections > MD DZNE > MD DZNE-AG Düzel
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-AG Wagner
Institute Collections > BN DZNE > BN DZNE-AG Heneka
Institute Collections > B DZNE > B DZNE-AG Priller
Institute Collections > B DZNE > B DZNE-AG Peters
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 Record created 2026-09-11, last modified 2026-09-11



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