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The precuneus and Alzheimer's: new findings
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The precuneus is a central region of the human brain. Its shape shows great variability between individuals, it is larger in humans than in other primates, and it is also one of the areas that is first affected by atrophy and hypometabolism in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The study
In this work, the researchers compared the general morphology of the precuneus in healthy elderly people and in Alzheimer's patients. They analysed its geometry and measured the space between sulci (sulcal spacing) as an indicator of atrophy.
The results show that:
- In Alzheimer's disease the inferior part of the precuneus, which connects to the posterior cingulate and the retrosplenial cortex, is particularly reduced.
- During normal ageing, sulcal spacing is accentuated in the superior and posterior regions; in Alzheimer's patients, the latter change is more pronounced.
- Even so, there is great individual variability and some overlap between the ranges of the two groups.
What it means
The study highlights the differences between the dorsal and ventral regions of the precuneus:
- Dorsal areas have little spatial conditioning, which facilitates their ‘separation’ with atrophy.
- Ventral areas, on the other hand, are more ‘embedded’ in a complex anatomical environment, and atrophy results in compression.
This structural contrast must be taken into account when investigating how the cerebral cortex changes in both normal ageing and pathological conditions.
Commitment to research
The work has been led by the palaeoneurologist Emiliano Bruner, researcher affiliated to the Centre for Research on Neurological Diseases (CIEN), with the participation of several researchers from CIEN itself, especially from the Neuroimaging Platform.
Reference article: Bruner E, Gallareto-Sande R, López-González FJ, Zhang L, Sánchez Martín C, Grothe MJ, Sánchez-Juan P. Morphological variations and cortical atrophy of the precuneus in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. J Anat. 2025 Aug 29. doi: 10.1111/joa.70027 .