Diving to Depths

The dentate gyrus is a part of the brain that contributes to the formation of memories. In individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, this is the first site known to undergo degenerative changes even before symptoms start to show. This sounds promising for detecting Alzheimer’s earlier, but this structure is only a few millimetres thick and hidden deep within the brain. To exploit this knowledge, we would need really powerful imaging techniques to detect microscopic changes. Here, researchers used a 16.4 Tesla MRI scanner – a much stronger magnetic field than currently used for human body imaging – to measure changes for example in neuron density and abnormal protein accumulation within the dentate gyrus from postmortem brains of cognitively normal individuals (left) and those with Alzheimer’s (right). Colours highlight neuron fibres in subregions, revealing differences. While this technology is far from ready for a clinical setting, it is a step in the right direction.

Written by Sophie Arthur

Sophie Arthur

former Science Communications Officer MRC LMS

Formerly a stem cell biologist, Sophie has since moved into science communication working at the MRC LMS. She also writes an award winning science and education blog Soph talks science.

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• Image from work by Nien-Chu Shih and colleagues
• USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in NeuroImage: Clinical, January 2023