Unmasking selective path integration deficits in Alzheimer's disease risk carriers
Anne Bierbrauer, Lukas Kunz, Carlos A Gomes, Maike Luhmann, Lorena Deuker, Stephan Getzmann, Edmund Wascher, Patrick D Gajewski, Jan G Hengstler, Marina Fernandez-Alvarez, Mercedes Atienza, Davide M Cammisuli, Francesco Bonatti, Carlo Pruneti, Antonio Percesepe, Youssef Bellaali, Bernard Hanseeuw, Bryan A Strange, Jose L Cantero, Nikolai Axmacher, Anne Bierbrauer, Lukas Kunz, Carlos A Gomes, Maike Luhmann, Lorena Deuker, Stephan Getzmann, Edmund Wascher, Patrick D Gajewski, Jan G Hengstler, Marina Fernandez-Alvarez, Mercedes Atienza, Davide M Cammisuli, Francesco Bonatti, Carlo Pruneti, Antonio Percesepe, Youssef Bellaali, Bernard Hanseeuw, Bryan A Strange, Jose L Cantero, Nikolai Axmacher
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) manifests with progressive memory loss and spatial disorientation. Neuropathological studies suggest early AD pathology in the entorhinal cortex (EC) of young adults at genetic risk for AD (APOE ε4-carriers). Because the EC harbors grid cells, a likely neural substrate of path integration (PI), we examined PI performance in APOE ε4-carriers during a virtual navigation task. We report a selective impairment in APOE ε4-carriers specifically when recruitment of compensatory navigational strategies via supportive spatial cues was disabled. A separate fMRI study revealed that PI performance was associated with the strength of entorhinal grid-like representations when no compensatory strategies were available, suggesting grid cell dysfunction as a mechanistic explanation for PI deficits in APOE ε4-carriers. Furthermore, posterior cingulate/retrosplenial cortex was involved in the recruitment of compensatory navigational strategies via supportive spatial cues. Our results provide evidence for selective PI deficits in AD risk carriers, decades before potential disease onset.
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Figures
References
- Coughlan G., Laczó J., Hort J., Minihane A.-M., Hornberger M., Spatial navigation deficits—Overlooked cognitive marker for preclinical Alzheimer disease? Nat. Rev. Neurol. 14, 496–506 (2018).
- Sperling R. A., Jack C. R. Jr., Aisen P. S., Testing the right target and right drug at the right stage. Sci. Transl. Med. 3, 111cm33 (2011).
- Corder E. H., Saunders A. M., Strittmatter W. J., Schmechel D. E., Gaskell P. C., Small G. W., Roses A. D., Haines J. L., Pericak-Vance M. A., Gene dose of apolipoprotein E type 4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in late onset families. Science 261, 921–923 (1993).
- Kunz L., Schröder T. N., Lee H., Montag C., Lachmann B., Sariyska R., Reuter M., Stirnberg R., Stöcker T., Messing-Floeter P. C., Fell J., Doeller C. F., Axmacher N., Reduced grid-cell–like representations in adults at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Science 350, 430–433 (2015).
- Coughlan G., Coutrot A., Khondoker M., Minihane A.-M., Spiers H., Hornberger M., Toward personalized cognitive diagnostics of at-genetic-risk Alzheimer’s disease. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116, 9285–9292 (2019).
- Mondadori C. R. A., de Quervain D. J.-F., Buchmann A., Mustovic H., Wollmer M. A., Schmidt C. F., Boesiger P., Hock C., Nitsch R. M., Papassotiropoulos A., Henke K., Better memory and neural efficiency in young apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers. Cereb. Cortex 17, 1934–1947 (2007).
- Weissberger G. H., Nation D. A., Nguyen C. P., Bondi M. W., Han S. D., Meta-analysis of cognitive ability differences by apolipoprotein E genotype in young humans. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 94, 49–58 (2018).
- Ghebremedhin E., Schultz C., Braak E., Braak H., High frequency of apolipoprotein E ϵ4 allele in young individuals with very mild Alzheimer’s disease-related neurofibrillary changes. Exp. Neurol. 153, 152–155 (1998).
- Hanseeuw B. J., Betensky R. A., Jacobs H. I. L., Schultz A. P., Sepulcre J., Becker J. A., Cosio D. M. O., Farrell M., Quiroz Y. T., Mormino E. C., Buckley R. F., Papp K. V., Amariglio R. A., Dewachter I., Ivanoiu A., Huijbers W., Hedden T., Marshall G. A., Chhatwal J. P., Rentz D. M., Sperling R. A., Johnson K., Association of amyloid and tau with cognition in preclinical Alzheimer disease: A longitudinal study. JAMA Neurol. 76, 915–924 (2019).
- Braak H., Thal D. R., Ghebremedhin E., Del Tredici K., Stages of the pathologic process in Alzheimer disease: Age categories from 1 to 100 years. J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 70, 960–969 (2011).
- Hafting T., Fyhn M., Molden S., Moser M.-B., Moser E. I., Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex. Nature 436, 801–806 (2005).
- Fu H., Rodriguez G. A., Herman M., Emrani S., Nahmani E., Barrett G., Figueroa H. Y., Goldberg E., Hussaini S. A., Duff K. E., Tau pathology induces excitatory neuron loss, grid cell dysfunction, and spatial memory deficits reminiscent of early Alzheimer’s disease. Neuron 93, 533–541.e5 (2017).
- Doeller C. F., Barry C., Burgess N., Evidence for grid cells in a human memory network. Nature 463, 657–661 (2010).
- Bellmund J. L. S., Deuker L., Schröder T. N., Doeller C. F., Grid-cell representations in mental simulation. eLife 5, e17089 (2016).
- Kunz L., Maidenbaum S., Chen D., Wang L., Jacobs J., Axmacher N., Mesoscopic neural representations in spatial navigation. Trend Cogn. Sci. 23, 615–630 (2019).
- Stangl M., Achtzehn J., Huber K., Dietrich C., Tempelmann C., Wolbers T., Compromised grid-cell-like representations in old age as a key mechanism to explain age-related navigational deficits. Curr. Biol. 28, 1108–1115.e6 (2018).
- Hardcastle K., Ganguli S., Giocomo L. M., Environmental boundaries as an error correction mechanism for grid cells. Neuron 86, 827–839 (2015).
- Burak Y., Fiete I. R., Accurate path integration in continuous attractor network models of grid cells. PLOS Comput. Biol. 5, e1000291 (2009).
- Gil M., Ancau M., Schlesiger M. I., Neitz A., Allen K., De Marco R. J., Monyer H., Impaired path integration in mice with disrupted grid cell firing. Nat. Neurosci. 21, 81–91 (2018).
- Howard L. R., Javadi A. H., Yu Y., Mill R. D., Morrison L. C., Knight R., Loftus M. M., Staskute L., Spiers H. J., The hippocampus and entorhinal cortex encode the path and Euclidean distances to goals during navigation. Curr. Biol. 24, 1331–1340 (2014).
- Epstein R. A., Patai E. Z., Julian J. B., Spiers H. J., The cognitive map in humans: Spatial navigation and beyond. Nat. Neurosci. 20, 1504–1513 (2017).
- Mitchell A. S., Czajkowski R., Zhang N., Jeffery K., Nelson A. J. D., Retrosplenial cortex and its role in spatial cognition. Brain Neurosci. Adv. 2, 2398212818757098 (2018).
- Folstein M. F., Folstein S. E., McHugh P. R., “Mini-mental state”. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J. Psychiatr. Res. 12, 189–198 (1975).
- Miller J., Watrous A. J., Tsitsiklis M., Lee S. A., Sheth S. A., Schevon C. A., Smith E. H., Sperling M. R., Sharan A., Asadi-Pooya A. A., Worrell G. A., Meisenhelter S., Inman C. S., Davis K. A., Lega B., Wanda P. A., Das S. R., Stein J. M., Gorniak R., Jacobs J., Lateralized hippocampal oscillations underlie distinct aspects of human spatial memory and navigation. Nat. Commun. 9, 2423 (2018).
- Matura S., Prvulovic D., Jurcoane A., Hartmann D., Miller J., Scheibe M., O’Dwyer L., Oertel-Knöchel V., Knöchel C., Reinke B., Karakaya T., Fußer F., Pantel J., Differential effects of the ApoE4 genotype on brain structure and function. Neuroimage 89, 81–91 (2014).
- Shine J. P., Valdés-Herrera J. P., Hegarty M., Wolbers T., The human retrosplenial cortex and thalamus code head direction in a global reference frame. J. Neurosci. 36, 6371–6381 (2016).
- Destrieux C., Fischl B., Dale A., Halgren E., Automatic parcellation of human cortical gyri and sulci using standard anatomical nomenclature. Neuroimage 53, 1–15 (2010).
- Navarro Schröder T., Haak K. V., Jimenez N. I. Z., Beckmann C. F., Doeller C. F., Functional topography of the human entorhinal cortex. eLife 4, e06738 (2015).
- Coutrot A., Silva R., Manley E., de Cothi W., Sami S., Bohbot V. D., Wiener J. M., Hölscher C., Dalton R. C., Hornberger M., Spiers H. J., Global determinants of navigation ability. Curr. Biol. 28, 2861–2866.e4 (2018).
- Marchette S. A., Vass L. K., Ryan J., Epstein R. A., Anchoring the neural compass: Coding of local spatial reference frames in human medial parietal lobe. Nat. Neurosci. 17, 1598–1606 (2014).
- Thal D. R., Rüb U., Orantes M., Braak H., Phases of Aβ-deposition in the human brain and its relevance for the development of AD. Neurology 58, 1791–1800 (2002).
- Braak H., Alafuzoff I., Arzberger T., Kretzschmar H., Del Tredici K., Staging of Alzheimer disease-associated neurofibrillary pathology using paraffin sections and immunocytochemistry. Acta Neuropathol. 112, 389–404 (2006).
- Jagust W., Imaging the evolution and pathophysiology of Alzheimer disease. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 19, 687–700 (2018).
- Huijbers W., Schultz A. P., Papp K. V., La Point M. R., Hanseeuw B., Chhatwal J. P., Hedden T., Johnson K. A., Sperling R. A., Tau accumulation in clinically normal older adults is associated with hippocampal hyperactivity. J. Neurosci. 39, 548–556 (2019).
- Bejanin A., Schonhaut D. R., La Joie R., Kramer J. H., Baker S. L., Sosa N., Ayakta N., Cantwell A., Janabi M., Lauriola M., O’Neil J. P., Gorno-Tempini M. L., Miller Z. A., Rosen H. J., Miller B. L., Jagust W. J., Rabinovici G. D., Tau pathology and neurodegeneration contribute to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 140, 3286–3300 (2017).
- Howett D., Castegnaro A., Krzywicka K., Hagman J., Marchment D., Henson R., Rio M., King J. A., Burgess N., Chan D., Differentiation of mild cognitive impairment using an entorhinal cortex-based test of virtual reality navigation. Brain 142, 1751–1766 (2019).
- Ewers M., Sperling R. A., Klunk W. E., Weiner M. W., Hampel H., Neuroimaging markers for the prediction and early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease dementia. Trends Neurosci. 34, 430–442 (2011).
- Jagust W. J., Mormino E. C., Lifespan brain activity, β-amyloid, and Alzheimer’s disease. Trends Cogn. Sci. 15, 520–526 (2011).
- Prieto del Val L., Cantero J. L., Atienza M., APOE ε4 constrains engagement of encoding-related compensatory networks in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Hippocampus 25, 993–1007 (2015).
- Bakker A., Krauss G. L., Albert M. S., Speck C. L., Jones L. R., Stark C. E., Yassa M. A., Bassett S. S., Shelton A. L., Gallagher M., Reduction of hippocampal hyperactivity improves cognition in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Neuron 74, 467–474 (2012).
- Palop J. J., Mucke L., Network abnormalities and interneuron dysfunction in Alzheimer disease. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 17, 777–792 (2016).
- Alzheimer’s Association , 2015 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. Alzheimers Dement. 11, 332–384 (2015).
- Hoenig M. C., Bischof G. N., Onur Ö. A., Kukolja J., Jessen F., Fliessbach K., Neumaier B., Fink G. R., Kalbe E., Drzezga A., van Eimeren T.; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative , Level of education mitigates the impact of tau pathology on neuronal function. Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging 46, 1787–1795 (2019).
- Bécu M., Sheynikhovich D., Tatur G., Agathos C. P., Bologna L. L., Sahel J.-A., Arleo A., Age-related preference for geometric spatial cues during real-world navigation. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4, 88–99 (2020).
- Malkki H., Alzheimer disease: Effects of the APOE ε4 allele on brain development. Nat. Rev. Neurol. 10, 4 (2014).
- Heffernan A. L., Chidgey C., Peng P., Masters C. L., Roberts B. R., The neurobiology and age-related prevalence of the ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E in Alzheimer’s disease cohorts. J. Mol. Neurosci. 60, 316–324 (2016).
- Berens P., CircStat: A MATLAB toolbox for circular statistics. J. Stat. Softw. 31, 1–21 (2009).
- R Core Team, R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (2018).
- Bates D., Mächler M., Bolker B. M., Walker S., Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. J. Stat. Softw. 67, 1–48 (2014).
- R. Lenth, emmeans: Estimated Marginal Means, aka Least-Squares Means (2019).
- Hegarty M., Richardson A. E., Montello D. R., Lovelace K., Subbiah I., Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability. Intelligence 30, 425–447 (2002).
- Langsrud Ø., ANOVA for unbalanced data: Use Type II instead of Type III sums of squares. Stat. Comput. 13, 163–167 (2003).
- Fischl B., van der Kouwe A., Destrieux C., Halgren E., Ségonne F., Salat D. H., Busa E., Seidman L. J., Goldstein J., Kennedy D., Caviness V., Makris N., Rosen B., Dale A. M., Automatically parcellating the human cerebral cortex. Cereb. Cortex 14, 11–22 (2004).
- Desikan R. S., Ségonne F., Fischl B., Quinn B. T., Dickerson B. C., Blacker D., Buckner R. L., Dale A. M., Maguire R. P., Hyman B. T., Albert M. S., Killiany R. J., An automated labeling system for subdividing the human cerebral cortex on MRI scans into gyral based regions of interest. Neuroimage 31, 968–980 (2006).
- Tombaugh T. N., McIntyre N. J., The mini-mental state examination: A comprehensive review. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 40, 922–935 (1992).
- Petersen R. C., Smith G. E., Waring S. C., Ivnik R. J., Tangalos E. G., Kokmen E., Mild cognitive impairment: Clinical characterization and outcome. Arch. Neurol. 56, 303–308 (1999).
- Albert M. S., DeKosky S. T., Dickson D., Dubois B., Feldman H. H., Fox N. C., Gamst A., Holtzman D. M., Jagust W. J., Petersen R. C., Snyder P. J., Carrillo M. C., Thies B., Phelps C. H., The diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement. 7, 270–279 (2011).
- C. A. Helmstaedter, M. Lendth, S. Lux, Verbaler Lern- und Merkfähigkeitstest (Beltz Test, 2001).
- Morris J. C., The clinical dementia rating (CDR): Current version and scoring rules. Neurology 43, 2412–2414 (1993).
- Morris J. C., Heyman A., Mohs R. C., Hughes J. P., van Belle G., Fillenbaum G., Mellits E. D., Clark C., The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD). Part I. Clinical and neuropsychological assessment of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology 39, 1159–1165 (1989).
- A. Coutrot, E. Manley, D. Yesiltepe, R. C. Dalton, J. M. Wiener, C. Hölscher, M. Hornberger, H. J. Spiers, Cities have a negative impact on navigation ability: Evidence from 38 countries. bioRxiv 2020.01.23.917211 [Preprint]. 24 January 2020. .
- Bush D., Burgess N., Advantages and detection of phase coding in the absence of rhythmicity. Hippocampus 30, 745–762 (2020).
- Kraus B. J., Brandon M. P., Robinson R. J. II, Connerney M. A., Hasselmo M. E., Eichenbaum H., During running in place, grid cells integrate elapsed time and distance run. Neuron 88, 578–589 (2015).
Source: PubMed