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Research

27,380 Alzheimer's and dementia studies in plain English, each scored out of 100.

Find studies

Showing 1–25 of 74 studies in Brain scans and imaging published 2018 (page 1 of 3) · 27,380 in the whole library · How the 0–100 score works

Browse by subject, author or institution

Each number is how many studies that link shows, with your other filters kept.

Other subjects

Authors

Names as each record prints them; the same person can appear under two spellings.

Institutions

From OpenAlex; 12,859 studies have no institution on record and are not counted here.

What “Brain scans and imaging” covers

Brain scans and imaging — MRI, PET and other scans: what they show, how early, and how reliably.

A note on reading research. One study is rarely the final word.

We try to note the size of a study, whether it was in humans or animals, and how early-stage the finding is. If a summary here doesn't make that clear, treat it with extra caution and check the original source.

Spatial patterns of neuroimaging biomarker change in individuals from families with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 77 out of 100. The Lancet. Neurology 2018-02-01

We found a sequence to pathological changes, with rates of Aβ deposition in mutation carriers being significantly different from those in non-carriers first (across regions that showed a significant difference, at a mean of 18·9 years [SD 3·3] before expected onset), followed by hypometabolism (14·1 years [5·1] before expected onset), and lastly structural decline (4·7 years [4·2] before expected onset). 2 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Participants: 346 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Resting-state fMRI in Parkinson's disease patients with cognitive impairment: A meta-analysis

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 75 out of 100. Parkinsonism & related disorders 2018-12-17

Seventeen studies with cognitively impaired Parkinson's disease patients were included consisting of 222 Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment, 68 patients with Parkinson's disease dementia, 289 cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's disease patients and 353 healthy controls. 4 key findings →

Design: meta-analysis Participants: 68 Evidence: high

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Brain and blood metabolite signatures of pathology and progression in Alzheimer disease: A targeted metabolomics study

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 73 out of 100. PLoS medicine 2018-01-25

We found that distinct sphingolipid species including sphingomyelin (SM) with acyl residue sums C16:0, C18:1, and C16:1 (SM C16:0, SM C18:1, SM C16:1) and hydroxysphingomyelin with acyl residue sum C14:1 (SM (OH) C14:1) were consistently associated with severity of AD pathology at autopsy and AD progression across prodromal and preclinical stages. 5 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Participants: 44 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

CSF biomarkers of neuroinflammation and cerebrovascular dysfunction in early Alzheimer disease

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 73 out of 100. Neurology 2018-07-27

Neuroinflammation and cerebrovascular dysfunction are early events occurring already at presymptomatic stages of AD and contribute to disease progression. 5 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Participants: 508 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Association of β-Amyloid and Apolipoprotein E ε4 With Memory Decline in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 66 out of 100. JAMA neurology 2018-04-01

However, the extent to which increasing age, Aβ, and ε4 are associated with memory decline remains unclear, and the age at which memory decline begins for Aβ-positive ε4 carriers and noncarriers has not been determined. 5 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Participants: 1,583 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Longitudinal Association of Amyloid Beta and Anxious-Depressive Symptoms in Cognitively Normal Older Adults

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 62 out of 100. The American journal of psychiatry 2018-01-12

Higher amyloid beta burden was associated with increasing anxious-depressive symptoms over time in cognitively normal older individuals. 4 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Participants: 270 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Association Between Amyloid and Tau Accumulation in Young Adults With Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer Disease

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100. JAMA neurology 2018-05-01

Compared with noncarriers, cognitively unimpaired mutation carriers had elevated mean cortical Pittsburgh Compound B distribution volume ratio levels in their late 20s, and 7 of 9 carriers older than 30 years reached the threshold for amyloidosis (distribution volume ratio level > 1.2). 4 key findings →

Design: cross-sectional Participants: 24 Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

In vivo 18F-AV-1451 tau PET signal in MAPT mutation carriers varies by expected tau isoforms

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 59 out of 100. Neurology 2018-02-09

Tau PET shows higher magnitude of binding in MAPT mutation carriers who harbor mutations that are more likely to produce AD-like tau pathology (e.g., in our series, the non-exon 10 families tend to accumulate mixed 3R/4R aggregates). 2 key findings →

Design: case-control study Participants: 13 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Association of Preclinical Alzheimer Disease With Optical Coherence Tomographic Angiography Findings

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 59 out of 100. JAMA ophthalmology 2018-11-01

Fifty-eight eyes from 30 participants (53% female; mean [SD] age, 74.5 [5.6] years; age range, 62-92 years) were included in the analysis. 4 key findings →

Design: case-control study Participants: 32 Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Brain Imaging of Alzheimer Dementia Patients and Elderly Controls with 18F-MK-6240, a PET Tracer Targeting Neurofibrillary Tangles

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 57 out of 100. Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2018-06-07

18F-MK-6240 (18F-labeled 6-(fluoro)-3-(1H-pyrrolo[2,3-c]pyridin-1-yl)isoquinolin-5-amine) is a highly selective, subnanomolar-affinity PET tracer for imaging neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). 4 key findings →

Design: longitudinal study Evidence: moderate

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Blood-brain barrier breakdown in Alzheimer disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 56 out of 100. Nature reviews. Neurology 2018-01-29

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a continuous endothelial membrane within brain microvessels that has sealed cell-to-cell contacts and is sheathed by mural vascular cells and perivascular astrocyte end-feet. 1 key finding →

Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Comparing 18F-AV-1451 with CSF t-tau and p-tau for diagnosis of Alzheimer disease

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 56 out of 100. Neurology 2018-01-10

CSF tau and 18 F-AV-1451 have equal performance in early clinical stages of AD, but 18 F-AV-1451 is superior in the dementia stage, and exhibits close to perfect diagnostic performance for mild to moderate AD. 3 key findings →

Participants: 14 Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Sustainable method for Alzheimer dementia prediction in mild cognitive impairment: Electroencephalographic connectivity and graph theory combined with apolipoprotein E

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 54 out of 100. Annals of neurology 2018-08-25

Concluding, this innovative EEG analysis, in combination with a genetic test (both low-cost and widely available), could evaluate on an individual basis with great precision the risk of MCI progression. 3 key findings →

Participants: 97 Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Multisite study of the relationships between antemortem [ 11 C]PIB‐PET Centiloid values and postmortem measures of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 54 out of 100. Alzheimer s & Dementia 2018-10-19

Our study demonstrated the robustness of a multisite Centiloid [ 11 C]PIB‐PET study and established a range of pathology‐based CL thresholds.

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

Tau-PET imaging with [18F]AV-1451 in primary progressive apraxia of speech

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 54 out of 100. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior 2018-01-02

Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder characterized by combinations of slow speaking rate, abnormal prosody, distorted sound substitutions, and trial-and-error articulatory movements. 1 key finding →

Design: cross-sectional Participants: 14 Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

In Vivo Characterization and Quantification of Neurofibrillary Tau PET Radioligand 18F-MK-6240 in Humans from Alzheimer Disease Dementia to Young Controls

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 52 out of 100. Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine 2018-05-18

SUVs in the pons and the inferior cerebellum indicated consistent clearance across all 51 subjects. 5 key findings →

Participants: 19 Evidence: low

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source Free full text

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Where “Free full text” comes from

Free full text links and the Full text may need a subscription label come from Unpaywall, Europe PMC and OpenAlex records of free copies, checked 10 Oct 2026. A study with neither is unknown, not paywalled. Show only studies that are free to read

How the 0–100 score works — and why some entries are capped

This is alzhub's own score. It is not an official metric, not an impact factor, and no journal, publisher or ranking body endorses it. We built it so that a reader who is not a scientist can tell a landmark trial from a conference abstract without having to already know the difference. Every point comes from one of 20 components, all of them printed on the study itself, so you can disagree with our arithmetic rather than having to trust the total.

  • Journal tier up to 10 pts
  • Journal's citation record up to 4 pts
  • Study design up to 12 pts
  • Strength of evidence up to 5 pts
  • Peer-review validation up to 10 pts
  • How recent up to 5 pts
  • Sample size up to 4 pts
  • Effect reported up to 3 pts
  • Studied in people up to 3 pts
  • Randomised / blinded up to 2 pts
  • Times cited up to 7 pts
  • Citations per year up to 5 pts
  • Impact for its field and year up to 6 pts
  • Cited by studies here up to 6 pts
  • Still being cited up to 4 pts
  • Senior author's track record up to 4 pts
  • Institution's track record up to 3 pts
  • Multi-centre collaboration up to 3 pts
  • Indexed in PubMed up to 2 pts
  • Free to read up to 2 pts

Journals are placed in ordered tiers, never given a numeric impact factor — we could not verify current impact factors from a source we control, and an invented one would be worse than none. Tier 1 is the top-tier general journals (NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA, Nature, Science, Nature Medicine); tier 2 is the leading specialty journals; tier 3 is every other peer-reviewed journal. A separate part scores how much the journal's own papers are cited, which tells the tier-3 journals apart.

Two rules we don't bend. First, we never fill in a missing value: if a record does not state a sample size or a design, that component scores zero, and if we simply have no data for a part, such as a citation count, that part is left out and the study is scored on the parts we could check. The study card says which. Second, anything that is not a peer-reviewed article is capped at 16/100 and carries a warning chip — so a conference abstract or a company press release can never outrank a peer-reviewed paper, no matter how good it looks.

We rank a rigorous null result — a good trial showing that something does not work — above an early positive finding. Someone deciding whether to buy a supplement is served by that, and the rigour is already counted by the design and journal components.

The score is computed from the published data alone and is reproducible: the same file always yields the same numbers.

See the whole rubric drawn out → — four charts covering all 27,380 studies: how the scores are spread and where the cap bites, which of the 20 components the library is strong and weak on, which subjects rest on stronger evidence, and what kinds of study each subject is actually built from.

What this library is — and isn't

This is a large sample of the Alzheimer's literature, not an exhaustive index of it. It holds 27,380 records, built mostly from automated pulls of Europe PMC (60.6% of the library) and OpenAlex (18.6%), plus smaller pulls from PubMed, Crossref and medRxiv. If a study, a drug, or a finding isn't here, that is not evidence it doesn't exist in the literature — it may simply not have been pulled in yet.

1,032 records (3.8% of the library) are not peer-reviewed — 962 of those are preprints posted before any journal review, and the rest are conference abstracts, regulatory notices and reports. Every study card on this page states its status plainly, and the score above is capped for anything that isn't a peer-reviewed article.

See the full, machine-readable breakdown of this library's coverage →

Newest studies, as a dated timeline →    Atom feed