Cortical thickness: Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and healthy control (IMAGE)
Caption
Displayed is the cortical thickness for each group studied (Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury and healthy aging) after mapping each participant's cortical surface to an atlas average. The color scale ranges from bright red (thinner cortex) to yellow (thicker cortex). Healthy participants have the thickest cortex, whereas patients with Alzheimer's disease exhibit pronounced cortical thinning, which is a hallmark of the disease. As expected, TBI patients fall in between the two groups based on their typical cortical thickness. This reflects their faster rate of cortical thinning, which is accelerated by injury and by subsequent pathological processes. Such accelerated cortical thinning is illustrative of TBI patients' higher risk of neurodegeneration along Alzheimer's disease-like trajectories.
Credit
Kenneth Rostowsky, USC
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