Investigation of the default mode network of the brain during Alzheimer's disease by minimum spanning tree

Abstract

This study analyzes the connectivity pattern of the default mode network (DMN) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in comparison with young and elderly controls using the minimum spanning tree (MST). The findings revealed that the alterations of the basic structure represented by the MST might provide valuable insights about the physiopathology of the disease. Additionally, by making use of the MST for functionally clustering the DMN, it was shown that the functional subnetworks comprising the DMN differed among the three subject groups. Nonetheless, there were intact prefrontal and temporal networks in elderly controls and AD patients, as well. The analysis shows that the DMN of the AD patients exhibit a higher segregation. We conclude that the MST can be used effectively for analyzing cortical networks. © 2011 IEEE.