Fried, P. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2026

A large, comprehensive labeled MRI dataset of the human lateral ventricle choroid plexus

The choroid plexus (ChP) is a highly vascularized structure located in the brain ventricles that plays important roles in multiple central nervous system functions. ChP enlargement has been implicated in many neuropsychiatric conditions such as multiple sclerosis, depression, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease. However, limitation in the accuracy of the current segmentation tools highlight the need for more reliable methods to quantify ChP volume in healthy and clinical human populations. The shape and size of the ChP vary drastically from person to person, and currently there are no large ChP datasets which allow comprehensive training of segmentation models. Here we introduce DataPlex, a collection of 700 structural MRI brain images where the lateral ventricle ChP has been manually labeled and checked by expert human raters. DataPlex is balanced and representative across a wide range of scanning parameters, demographics, and clinical profiles, and subject-level information will be available for each labeled image. DataPlex will be open source to support the creation of reliable segmentation tools for the human lateral ventricle ChP.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Neurophysiological signatures of default mode network dysfunction and cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease.

Neural hyper-excitability and network dysfunction are neurophysiological hallmarks of Alzheimers disease (AD) in animal studies, but their presence and clinical relevance in humans remain poorly understood. We introduce a novel perturbation-based approach combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), alongside resting-state EEG (rsEEG), to investigate neurophysiological basis of default mode network (DMN) dysfunction in early AD. While rsEEG revealed global neural slowing and disrupted synchrony, these measures reflected widespread changes in brain neurophysiology without network-specific insights. In contrast, TMS-EEG identified network-specific local hyper-excitability in the parietal DMN and disrupted connectivity with frontal DMN regions, which uniquely predicted distinct cognitive impairments and mediated the link between structural brain integrity and cognition. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into how network-specific neurophysiological disruptions contribute to AD-related cognitive dysfunction. Perturbation-based assessments hold promise as novel markers of early detection, disease progression, and target engagement for disease-modifying therapies aiming to restore abnormal neurophysiology in AD.

neuroscience↗