page_title: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
section_title: Other significant findings
hierarchical_section_title: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative / Other significant findings
caption_attribution_description: Dorsal and lateral views of the connectivity backbone of human brain. Labels indicating anatomical subregions are placed at their respective centers of mass. Nodes (individual ROIs) are coded according to strength and edges are coded according to connection weight (see legend).
context_page_description: Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative is a multisite study that aims to improve clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. This cooperative study combines expertise and funding from the private and public sector to study subjects with AD, as well as those who may develop AD and controls with no signs of cognitive impairment. Researchers at 63 sites in the US and Canada track the progression of AD in the human brain with neuroimaging, biochemical, and genetic biological markers. This knowledge helps to find better clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of AD. ADNI has made a global impact, firstly by developing a set of standardized protocols to allow the comparison of results from multiple centers, and secondly by its data-sharing policy which makes available all at the data without embargo to qualified researchers worldwide. To date, over 1000 scientific publications have used ADNI data. A number of other initiatives related to AD and other diseases have been designed and implemented using ADNI as a model. ADNI has been running since 2004 and is currently funded until 2021.
context_section_description: Studies using ADNI cross-sectional and longitudinal MRI, PET, genetics, cognitive, biological fluid,  and autopsy data have reported that:
  AD pathology is already present in people with no outward sign of memory loss. These cognitively normal people may already have subtle brain atrophy.
  AD progresses in a typical pattern, beginning in the entorhinal cortex  in the preclinical AD, spreading to other regions affecting memory, then function and other cognitive abilities in mild to moderate AD and finally severe AD (Figure 1).
  The spread can be seen in patterns of changes in biomarkers of β-amyloid deposition (Figure 2), glucose metabolism (Figure 3) and in structural changes in the brain measured by MRI (Figure 4).
  AD is characterized by the progressive disruption of the brain connectome. As the disease progresses there are fewer connections between essential brain regions (Figure 5).
  Many genes in addition to APOE ε4 underlie late onset AD. ADNI data has helped to identify or confirm 10 of the approximately 20 risk genes currently identified
  Cerebrovascular disease can accelerate disease progression in AD.
  Both the cognitively normal and MCI groups are pathologically heterogeneous. Some people show no signs of AD, some show signs of progressing to AD quickly, and others show signs of progressing to dementias other than AD.
caption: Figure 5. Network representation of brain connectivity. The thickness of the lines represent the strength of connection between different brain areas. Important 'hubs' are marked as circles. As Alzheimer's disease progresses, individual connections erode.[23]
exif: {}