@article {aCasamitjanab, title = {NeAT: a nonlinear analysis toolbox for neuroimaging}, journal = {Neuroinformatics}, year = {2020}, month = {03/2020}, abstract = {

NeAT is a modular, flexible and user-friendly neuroimaging analysis toolbox for modeling linear and nonlinear effects overcoming the limitations of the standard neuroimaging methods which are solely based on linear models. NeAT provides a wide range of statistical and machine learning non-linear methods for model estimation, several metrics based on curve fitting and complexity for model inference and a graphical user interface (GUI) for visualization of results. We illustrate its usefulness on two study cases where non-linear effects have been previously established. Firstly, we study the nonlinear effects of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease on brain morphology (volume and cortical thickness). Secondly, we analyze the effect of the apolipoprotein APOE-ε4 genotype on brain aging and its interaction with age. NeAT is fully documented and publicly distributed at https://imatge-upc.github.io/neat-tool/.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, APOE, GAM, GLM, inference, neuroimaging, nonlinear., SVR}, doi = {10.1007/s12021-020-09456-w}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12021-020-09456-w}, author = {Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and Santi Puch and Asier Aduriz and Carlos Lopez and G. Operto and R. Cacciaglia and C. Falcon and J.L. Molinuevo and Juan D. Gispert} } @conference {cCasamitjana19, title = {Detection of Amyloid Positive Cognitively unimpaired individuals using voxel-based machine learning on structural longitudinal brain MRI}, booktitle = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Association International Conference}, year = {2019}, month = {07/2019}, author = {Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and P. Petrone and C. Falcon and M. Artigues and G. Operto and R. Cacciaglia and J.L. Molinuevo and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and J.D. Gispert} } @article {aCasamitjana19, title = {Detection of Amyloid-Positive Cognitively Unimpaired Individuals Using Voxel-Based Machine Learning on Structural Longitudinal Brain MRI}, journal = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s \& Dementia}, volume = {15}, year = {2019}, month = {07/2019}, chapter = {752}, abstract = {

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has unveiled specific AD alterations at different stages of the AD pathophysiologic continuum that constitutes what has been established as the {\textquoteleft}AD signature{\textquoteright}. To what extent MRI can detect amyloid-related cerebral changes from structural MRI in unimpaired individuals is still an area open for exploration.

}, issn = {1552-5260}, doi = {10.1016/j.jalz.2019.06.2796}, author = {Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and P. Petrone and C. Falcon and M. Artigues and G. Operto and R. Cacciaglia and J.L. Molinuevo and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and J.D. Gispert} } @article {aPetrone, title = {Prediction of amyloid pathology in cognitively unimpaired individuals using voxelwise analysis of longitudinal structural brain MRI}, journal = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Research \& Therapy}, volume = {11}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, abstract = {

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has unveiled specific alterations at different stages of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD) pathophysiologic continuum constituting what has been established as {\textquoteleft}AD signature{\textquoteright}. To what extent MRI can detect amyloid-related cerebral changes from structural MRI in cognitively unimpaired individuals is still an area open for exploration.

Method: Longitudinal 3D-T1 MRI scans were acquired from a subset of the ADNI cohort comprising 403 subjects: 79 controls (Ctrls), 50 preclinical AD (PreAD), 274 MCI and dementia due to AD (MCI/AD). Amyloid CSF was used as gold-standard measure with established cut-offs (\<192pg/mL) to establish diagnostic categories. Cognitively unimpaired individuals were defined as Ctrls if were amyloid negative and PreAD otherwise. The MCI/AD group was amyloid positive. Only subjects with the same diagnostic category at baseline and follow-up visits were considered for the study. Longitudinal morphometric analysis was performed using SPM12 to calculate Jacobian determinant maps. Statistical analysis was carried out on these jacobian maps to identify structural changes that were significantly different between diagnostic categories. A machine learning classifier was applied on Jacobian determinant maps to predict the presence of abnormal amyloid levels in cognitively unimpaired individuals. The performance of this classifier was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and as a function of the follow-up time between MRI scans. We applied a cost function to assess the benefit of using this classifier in the triaging of individuals in a clinical trial-recruitment setting.

Results: The optimal follow-up time for classification of Ctrls vs PreAD was Δt\>2.5 years and hence, only subjects within this temporal span are used for evaluation (15 Ctrls, 10 PreAD). The longitudinal voxel-based classifier achieved an AUC=0.87 (95\%CI:0.72-0.97). The brain regions that showed the highest discriminative power to detect amyloid abnormalities were the medial, inferior and lateral temporal lobes, precuneus, caudate heads, basal forebrain and lateral ventricles.

Conclusions: Our work supports that machine learning applied to longitudinal brain volumetric changes can be used to predict, with high precision, presence of amyloid abnormalities in cognitively unimpaired subjects. Used as a triaging method to identify a fixed number of amyloid positive individuals, this longitudinal voxelwise classifier is expected to avoid 55\% of unnecessary CSF and/or PET scans and reduce economic cost by 40\%.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-019-0526-8}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13195-019-0526-8}, author = {Paula Petrone and Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and Carles Falcon and Miguel Artigues C{\`a}naves and G. Operto and R. Cacciaglia and Jose Luis Molinuevo and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and Juan D. Gispert} } @conference {cPetrone, title = {Characteristic Brain Volumetric Changes in the AD Preclinical Signature}, booktitle = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Association International Conference}, year = {2018}, month = {07/2018}, address = {Chicago, USA}, abstract = {

In the last decade, magnetic resonance imaging has unveiled specific AD alterations at different stages of the AD pathophysiologic continuum that conform what has been established as the AD signature. To which extent MRI can detect structural changes at the preclinical asymptomatic stage of AD - the preclinical AD signature- is still an area open for exploration. Our work supports the idea that there are brain volumetric changes specific to preclinical AD subjects and defines the preclinical AD signature based on longitudinal data. While some regions show a pattern of atrophy that overlaps with the AD signature, other specific regions exhibit changes that are unique to this early asymptomatic AD stage.

}, author = {P. Petrone and Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and C. Falcon and M. Artigues and G. Operto and S. Skouras and R. Cacciaglia and J.L. Molinuevo and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and J.D. Gispert} } @conference {cPetrone17, title = {Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a valuable tool for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease screening}, booktitle = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Association International Conference, London, 2017}, year = {2017}, month = {07/2017}, author = {P. Petrone and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and A. Tucholka and C. Falcon and R. Cacciaglia and G. Operto and S. Skouras and J.L. Molinuevo and J.D. Gispert} } @article {aPetrone17, title = {Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a valuable tool for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease screening}, journal = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s \& Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s Association}, volume = {13}, year = {2017}, month = {07/2017}, pages = {P1245}, doi = {10.1016/j.jalz.2017.07.457}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2017.07.457}, author = {P. Petrone and Ver{\'o}nica Vilaplana and Adri{\`a} Casamitjana and D. Sanchez-Escobedo and A. Tucholka and R. Cacciaglia and G. Operto and S. Skouras and C. Falcon and J.L. Molinuevo and J.D. Gispert} }