ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2021
White Matter Connectivity in Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Diffusion Spectrum Imaging Study of World Trade Center Responders at Midlife.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reduced Gray-White Matter Contrast in Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in World Trade Center Responders.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Article
- Neurotechnological Approaches to Cognitive Rehabilitation in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review of Neuromodulation, EEG, Virtual Reality, and Emerging AI Applications.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- World Trade Center Site Exposure Duration Is Associated with Hippocampal and Cerebral White Matter Neuroinflammation.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Reduced cerebellar cortical thickness in World Trade Center responders with cognitive impairment.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Cognitive Function among World Trade Center-Exposed Community Members with Mental Health Symptoms.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Cognitive impairment and World Trade Centre-related exposures.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2022Review
- DTI Connectometry Analysis Reveals White Matter Changes in Cognitively Impaired World Trade Center Responders at Midlife.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2022Article
- A cortical thinning signature to identify World Trade Center responders with possible dementia.Intelligence-based medicine · 2021Article
- Plasma amyloid beta 40/42, phosphorylated tau 181, and neurofilament light are associated with cognitive impairment and neuropathological changes among World Trade Center responders: A prospective cohort study of exposures and cognitive aging at midlife.Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIndividuals who participated in response efforts at the World Trade Center (WTC) following 9/11/2001 are experiencing elevated incidence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at midlife.
objectiveWe hypothesized that white matter connectivity measured using diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) would be restructured in WTC responders with MCI versus cognitively unimpaired responders.
methodsTwenty responders (mean age 56; 10 MCI/10 unimpaired) recruited from an epidemiological study were characterized using NIA-AA criteria alongside controls matched on demographics (age/sex/occupation/race/education). Axial DSI was acquired on a 3T Siemen's Biograph mMR scanner (12-channel head coil) using a multi-band diffusion sequence. Connectometry examined whole-brain tract-level differences in white matter integrity. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and quantified anisotropy were extracted for region of interest (ROI) analyses using the Desikan-Killiany atlas.
resultsConnectometry identified both increased and decreased connectivity within regions of the brains of responders with MCI identified in the corticothalamic pathway and cortico-striatal pathway that survived adjustment for multiple comparisons. MCI was also associated with higher FA values in five ROIs including in the rostral anterior cingulate; lower MD values in four ROIs including the left rostral anterior cingulate; and higher MD values in the right inferior circular insula. Analyses by cognitive domain revealed nominal associations in domains of response speed, verbal learning, verbal retention, and visuospatial learning.
conclusionsWTC responders with MCI at midlife showed early signs of neurodegeneration characterized by both increased and decreased white matter diffusivity in regions commonly affected by early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.