Dementia spreads via connected brain networks

Newswise — In a new study, UC San Francisco scientists used maps of brain connections to predict how brain atrophy would spread in individual patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), adding to growing evidence that the loss of brain cells associated with dementia spreads via the synaptic connections between established brain networks. The results advance scientists’ knowledge of how neurodegeneration spreads and could lead to new clinical tools to evaluate how well novel treatments slow or block the predicted trajectory of these diseases.

“Knowing how dementia spreads opens a window onto the biological mechanisms of the disease — what parts of our cells or neural circuits are most vulnerable,” said study lead author…