{"doi":"10.3233/jad-201237","title":"White Matter Connectivity in Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Diffusion Spectrum Imaging Study of World Trade Center Responders at Midlife","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Individuals 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. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that white matter connectivity measured using diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) would be restructured in WTC responders with MCI versus cognitively unimpaired responders. METHODS: Twenty 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. RESULTS: Connectometry 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. CONCLUSIONS: WTC 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.","journal":"Journal of Alzheimer s Disease","year":2021,"id":198261,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":10,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9598,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":476521,"name":"Minos Kritikos","orcid":"0000-0003-2710-0717","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366958,"name":"Sean Clouston","orcid":"0000-0002-6124-0329","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476520,"name":"Yael Deri","orcid":"0000-0002-2782-0493","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":773365,"name":"Mario Serrano‐Sosa","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":406747,"name":"Lev Bangiyev","orcid":"0000-0001-6257-0314","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":476523,"name":"Stephanie Santiago‐Michels","orcid":"0000-0002-9041-771X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":244537,"name":"Sam Gandy","orcid":"0000-0001-6455-4721","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284623,"name":"Mary Sano","orcid":"0000-0001-8889-2944","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264431,"name":"Evelyn J. Bromet","orcid":"0000-0002-2648-5793","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264440,"name":"Benjamin J. Luft","orcid":"0000-0001-9008-7004","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":290753,"name":"Chuan Huang","orcid":"0000-0001-6052-0663","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:27.616568Z","pmid":"33646156","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}