Personalized brain-connection maps to tell Alzheimer’s from Lewy body dementia
Developing an Individualized Deep Connectome Framework for ADRD Analysis
Using advanced MRI scans and AI, this project will find individual brain-connection patterns to help tell Alzheimer’s disease apart from Lewy body dementias for people aged 65 and older.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Texas Arlington NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Arlington, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-10699949 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would get a detailed MRI that is used with AI to build an individualized "GyralNet"—a map of your brain's connections. Researchers will align these maps across people using new surface-transformation methods and unsupervised spherical networks to spot subtle, person-specific differences between Alzheimer's and Lewy body dementia. They will apply these tools to multiple existing AD/LBD datasets to train and test the approach. The goal is to build an infrastructure that can detect connectome-scale abnormalities in individual patients that group studies often miss.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Older adults (typically 65+) who have been diagnosed with or are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy body dementia and who can undergo MRI scanning are the most relevant candidates.
Not a fit: People with other types of dementia, those who cannot have MRI scans (for example, due to metal implants), or those without available brain imaging data may not directly benefit from this work.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help clinicians diagnose Alzheimer’s versus Lewy body dementia more accurately for individual patients and reduce inappropriate or harmful treatments.
How similar studies have performed: Prior MRI and machine-learning studies have shown promise at the group level for distinguishing dementia types, but this individualized deep-connectome approach is novel and less tested.
Where this research is happening
Arlington, United States
- University of Texas Arlington — Arlington, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Zhu, Dajiang — University of Texas Arlington
- Study coordinator: Zhu, Dajiang
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.