Fig. 2: Characterization of histology-derived quantitative tau neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) burden maps in the space of a 3-D ex vivo anatomical atlas. | Nature Communications

Fig. 2: Characterization of histology-derived quantitative tau neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) burden maps in the space of a 3-D ex vivo anatomical atlas.

From: Postmortem imaging reveals patterns of medial temporal lobe vulnerability to tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease

Fig. 2

A Average and summary frequency maps of NFT burden in the space of the ex vivo MRI atlas of the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Maps are computed separately for specimens with a low B score (B0 or B1, which corresponds to Braak stages 0–II; n = 11) and a high B score (B2 or B3, which corresponds to Braak stages III–VI). For each subgroup, four coronal and one sagittal cross-sectional view of the average NFT burden map, and four frequency maps are visualized. The frequency maps at each voxel describe the fraction of cases for which the NFT burden at that voxel was above a given threshold. Thresholds were chosen based on the analysis conducted by Yushkevich et al. (2021) and correspond to different levels of pathological burden (> 1.0 for `severe’; > 0.5 for `moderate’; > 0.25 for `mild’; > 0.1 for `rare’). The top row shows the corresponding cross-sections of the consensus histology-based MTL subregion segmentation. For simplicity, we combine the presubiculum and parasubiculum labels, and the subdivisions of the ERC, BA35, and BA36. B Box plots comparing the distribution of mean NFT burden within each subregion between patients with a low and high B score. Using the two-sided t test, significant increases in NFT burden are observed in all subregions except the subiculum, where it nearly reaches significance (p < 0.05). C Box plot showing the NFT burden in MTL subregions normalized to BA35 NFT burden (dashed blue line). Subregions are sorted in order of decreasing mean NFT burden relative to BA35, going from top to bottom. Box plots in (B) and (C) show the median as the middle box line, first quartile (Q1) and third quartiles (Q3) as box edges (denoting the interquartile range, IQR), whiskers as the minima/maxima and outliers based on thresholds < Q1 − 1.5(IQR) or > Q3 + 1.5(IQR). Sample sizes are provided in Supplementary Table 2. Source data for 2B) and (C) are provided as a Source Data file. (S subiculum, PrS-PaS Pre/Parasubiculum, SRLM stratum radiatum lacunosum molecular PP perforant pathway, CA cornu ammonis, DG dentate gyrus, HATA hippocampal amygdala transition area, ERC entorhinal cortex, BA Brodmann area).

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