Contact: Jules Asher
NIMHpress@nih.gov
301-443-4536
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
Caption: MRI scans revealed that children and adolescents with the ApoE4 gene variant, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease, had a thinner entorhinal cortex, the first brain area to be affected by the brain disorder. Youth with the much rarer ApoE2 variant, thought to protect against Alzheimer's, had the thickest cortex. The vertical lines in the graph show ranges of thickness, with the red dots being the averages.
Credit: Philip Shaw, M.D., NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch
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Related news release: Cortex area thinner in youth with Alzheimer's-related gene