\u201cUntil now, most research into Alzheimer\u2019s effects on brain networks has either focused on the networks that become active during a mental task, or the default mode network, the primary network that activates when a person is daydreaming or letting the mind wander,\u201d says senior author Beau Ances, MD, assistant professor of neurology. \u201cThere are, however, a number of additional networks besides the default mode network that become active when the brain is idling and could tell us important things about Alzheimer\u2019s effects.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n Ances and his colleagues analyzed brain scans of 559 subjects. Some of these subjects were cognitively normal, while others were in the early stages of very mild to mild Alzheimer\u2019s disease. Scientists found that all of the networks they studied eventually became impaired during the initial stages of Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunications within and between networks are disrupted, but it doesn\u2019t happen all at once,\u201d Ances says. \u201cThere\u2019s even one network that has a momentary surge of improved connections before it starts dropping again. That\u2019s the salience network, which helps you determine what in your environment you need to pay attention to<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n Other networks studied by the researchers included:<\/p>\n Scientists also examined Alzheimer\u2019s effects on a brain networking property known as anti-correlations<\/strong>. Researchers identify networks by determining which brain areas frequently become active at the same time, but anti-correlated networks are noteworthy for the way their activities fluctuate: When one network is active, the other network is quiet. This ability to switch back and forth between networks is significantly diminished in participants with mild to moderate Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n The default mode network, previously identified as one of the first networks to be impaired by Alzheimer\u2019s, is a partner in two of the three pairs of anti-correlated networks scientist studied.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we can\u2019t prove this yet, one hypothesis is that as things go wrong in the processing of information in the default mode network, that mishandled data is passed on to other networks, where it creates additional problems,\u201d Ances says.<\/p>\n It’s not practical to use these network breakdowns to clinically diagnose Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Ances notes, but they may help track the development of the disease and aid efforts to better understand its spread through the brain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Ances plans to look at other markers for Alzheimer\u2019s disease in the same subjects, such as levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of amyloid beta, a major component of Alzheimer\u2019s plaques.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Washington University in St. Louis press release: Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first detailed looks into how Alzheimer\u2019s disease disrupts coordination among several of the brain\u2019s networks. The results, reported in The Journal of Neuroscience, include some of the earliest assessments of Alzheimer\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[195,42,18,194],"class_list":["post-6813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memory","category-neuroscience","tag-alzheimers","tag-brain","tag-cognition","tag-dementia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6813"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6885,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6813\/revisions\/6885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Senior](\"http:\/\/www.therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/SeniorDriver.jpg\")
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first detailed looks into how Alzheimer\u2019s disease disrupts coordination among several of the brain\u2019s networks<\/strong>. The results, reported in The Journal of Neuroscience<\/em>, include some of the earliest assessments of Alzheimer\u2019s effects on networks that are active when the brain is at rest.<\/p>\n\n