Anterior and Posterior MTL networks in Aging and MCI

Our paper looking at dissociable functional networks of anterior and posterior MTL regions in older healthy controls and MCI patients just got accepted for publication in Neurobiology of Aging. We labeled MTL subregions in high-resolution T2-MRI using our automated MTL subregion labeling technique (implemented in the publicly available ASHS software). We used seed regions in entorhinal and perirhinal cortices and hippocampal head to define the anterior MTL network and parahippocampal cortex and hippocampal tail to define the posterior MTL network, using resting-state BOLD fMRI. The networks turned out to be largely dissociable, as has been shown in young adults previously. Notably, it’s not just the posterior network, commonly thought to be affected in Alzheimer’s Disease, that showed reduced connectivity in MCI, but the anterior network also showed disconnection. Further, cortical thickness within both networks were reduced in MCI. This project is a collaboration with David Wolk at the Penn Memory Center.