Amygdalar atrophy in symptomatic Alzheimer's disease based on diffeomorphometry: the BIOCARD cohort

This article examines the diffeomorphometry of magnetic resonance imaging-derived structural markers for the amygdala, in subjects with symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using linear mixed-effects models we show differences between those with symptomatic AD and controls. Based on template centered population analysis, the distribution of statistically significant change is seen in both the volume and shape of the amygdala in subjects with symptomatic AD compared with controls. We find that high-dimensional vertex based markers are statistically more significantly discriminating (p < 0.00001) than lower-dimensional markers and volumes, consistent with comparable findings in presymptomatic AD. Using a high-field 7T atlas, significant atrophy was found to be centered in the basomedial and basolateral subregions, with no evidence of centromedial involvement.