Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease

Volume loss in the hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex were top predictors of Alzheimer’s disease across age and sex categories. The hippocampus is a small seahorse-shaped structure deep in the brain that is responsible for memory and learning. The amygdala, which is made up of two almond-shaped structures, controls emotions. The entorhinal cortex is a hub for memory, navigation, and perception, and it is among the first parts of the brain to be impacted by Alzheimer’s disease.

Both males and females age 69 to 76, the youngest age group studied, showed loss of brain volume in the right hippocampus. The researchers say that suggests the right hippocampus may be important in early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

“The critical challenge in this research is to build a generalizable machine-learning model that captures the difference between healthy brains and brains from people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease,” Nephew says. “A generalizable model means that the biomarkers we found are not unique to this dataset but could be universal to all patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s.”

Differences in male and female brains also emerged. The researchers discovered that volume loss in females occurred in the left middle temporal cortex, which is involved in language, memory, and visual perception. In males, volume loss was notable in the right entorhinal cortex.

The degree of these differences was surprising, Nephew says, and may be related to interactions between the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and changes in sex hormones. Some researchers have connected the risk of Alzheimer’s disease to the loss of estrogen in women and testosterone in men as they age.

Nephew and WPI students are following up on their Neuroscience publication by evaluating the use of deep leaning models and examining other factors that may impact the brain and Alzheimer’s disease, such as diabetes. The research has attracted WPI students from disciplines ranging from biology and biotechnology to neuroscience, psychology, computer science, and bioinformatics.

“This research exemplifies the strength of neuroscience at WPI, which is interdisciplinary and computational,” Nephew says. “The brain is an extremely complicated organ, and we need to think broadly about how to better understand, predict, and treat the diseases that afflict the brain.”