Exploring the neuromagnetic signatures of cognitive decline from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease dementia

Revealing hidden (brain-activity) patterns in Alzheimer’s risk

Our research in eBioMedicine – The Lancet Discovery Science demonstrates how brain activity patterns measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) provide valuable insights beyond standard cognitive testing and structural MRI in assessing progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

From the BioFIND cohort, we analyzed MEG recordings from 150 patients suffering from MCI using a standardized wavelet-based approach meeglet package and leveraging Riemannian statistics.

We observed dampening of brain activity above 10Hz in future AD converters and found that Riemannian analysis provided an enhanced summary of power, phase-, and amplitude dynamics. MEG covariance spectra emerged as a robust signature, adding information on AD progression over MRI and cognitive assessments.

This work highlights the unique value of measuring brain activity to understand AD risk and opens new avenues for earlier, more comprehensive assessment of risk beyond proteinopathies.

Citation

@article{gaubert2025,
    author = {Gaubert, Sinead and Garces, Pilar and Hipp, J{\"o}rg and Bru{\~n}a, Ricardo and Lop{\'e}z, Maria Eugenia and Maestu, Fernando and Vaghari, Delshad and Henson, Richard and Paquet, Claire and Engemann, Denis-Alexander},
    doi = {10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105659},
    isbn = {2352-3964},
    journal = {eBioMedicine},
    title = {Exploring the neuromagnetic signatures of cognitive decline from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease dementia},
    type = {doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105659},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2025.105659},
    volume = {114},
    year = {2025}
}