Background: We aimed to investigate how altered intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) affect pathologic changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) at a network-based level.
Methods: Thirty normal controls (NCs), 23 patients with AD-mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 20 patients with AD-dementia were enrolled. We compared the organization of grey matter structural covariance and functional connectivity in ICNs between NCs and all AD patients who were amyloid β (Aβ)-positive. We further used seed-based interregional covariance analysis to compare structural and Aβ plaque covariance in default mode network (DMN) between AD-MCI and AD-dementia groups.
Results: The patients with AD had increased functional interregional covariance among the regions of the ICN anchored to dorsal caudate (DC) seeds compared to the NCs. The increased connectivity was associated with extended patterns of reduced Aβ plaque covariance in the AD-dementia group compared to the AD-MCI group within the striatal network anchored to DC seeds. Patterns of lower Aβ plaque covariance in the AD-dementia group compared to the AD-MCI group were more extended within the network anchored to DC seeds than within the DMN, which was undergoing functional failure in the patients with AD. Significant decreased structural covariance in the AD-dementia group compared to the AD-MCI group was more extended in the DMN during functional failure.
Conclusions: Functional connectivity in ICNs affects the topographic spread of molecular pathologies. The temporal trajectory of pathologic alterations can be well demonstrated by pathologic covariance comparisons between different clinical stages. Pathologic covariance can provide critical support to pathologic interactions at network and molecular levels.