Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that causes problems with memory, problem solving and other thinking skills. Although the brain is made up of two types of tissue - grey matter and white matter - there has been little research on changes in white matter during Alzheimer's disease. In particular, there have been few studies that have examined how changes in white matter might be related to changes in memory. This study used brain imaging to look at how white matter in people with Alzheimer's disease compares to healthy older adults. It also looked at how changes in white matter might relate to memory and other thinking skills. The results showed that people with Alzheimer's disease have more degeneration of white matter compared to healthy older adults across many brain regions. The results also showed that healthy older adult's undamaged white matter was important for good performance on measures of memory and other thinking skills. Individuals with Alzheimer's disease performed worse on tests of memory and other thinking skills, but this was not related to the amount of white matter damage. Taken together, this study shows that brain imaging is able to detect white matter differences in the brain and future studies should examine white matter changes at earlier stages of Alzheimer's disease.