In recent years, the research of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has shifted from
the classic paradigm of grey matter disorders as the central and most relevant events of
the pathophysiology, to a broader perspective that takes into account the role of white
matter and brain connectivity. In the pre-AD stage, the mild cognitive impairment, we
can find with Magnetoencephalography a pattern of desynchronization among some
regions related with brain disconnection and hyper synchronization probably as a
compensatory mechanism. In addition, the study of brain white matter tracts by
diffusion tensor imaging by MRI provides sufficient discriminative capacity to allow
its use in the prognosis of the evolution of subjects within early stages of the disease.
Along these lines, we expect to show the alterations of white matter tracts in early
phases of the disease, and the possibility of using them as a predictor of the
development of AD. The study of connectivity alterations not only allows us to know
the physio pathogenic basis of the disease but also to increase targets in the search for
earlier markers of this neurodegenerative disorder.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Preclinical Stages,
Fractional Anisotropy, Mean Diffusivity, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Brain
connectivity, Early biomarker.
