Integrating individualized connectome with amyloid pathology improves predictive modeling of future cognitive decline.

BACKGROUND: The deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) in the human brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and is associated with cognitive decline. Aβ pathology is traditionally assessed at the whole-brain level across neocortical regions using positron emission tomography (PET). However, these measures often show weak associations with future cognitive impairment. A more sensitive pathology metric is needed to quantify early Aβ burden and better predict cognitive decline. Here, we aim to develop a network-based metric of Aβ burden to improve early prediction of cognitive decline in aging populations. METHODS: We integrated subject-specific brain connectome information with Aβ-PET measures to construct a network-based metric of Aβ burden. Cross-validated predictive modeling was used to evaluate the performance of this metric in predicting longitudinal cognitive decline. Furthermore, we identified a neuropathological signature pattern linked to future cognitive decline, and we validated this pattern in an independent cohort. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate that incorporating individualized structural connectome, but not functional connectome, information into Aβ measures enhances predictive performance for prospective cognitive decline. The identified neuropathological signature pattern is reproducible across cohorts. CONCLUSION: These findings advance our understanding of the spatial patterns of Aβ pathology and its relationship to brain networks, highlighting the potential of connectome-informed network-based metrics for Aβ-PET imaging in identifying individuals at higher risk of cognitive decline. Amyloid-β peptide is a molecule that is known to accumulate in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This accumulation starts to occur many years before the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, such as memory problems. Current methods to image the brain for amyloid-β peptide usually measure the overall level across the whole brain. In this study, we developed a more sensitive and personalized measure of amyloid-β by also considering how the different parts of a person’s brain are connected. We found that this approach improves the ability to predict future changes in cognition compared to the standard method. Our method might enable earlier identification of people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, which could improve monitoring and treatment.