Fig. 2. Aβ facilitates LC-related tau spreading beyond MTL regions.
a, Baseline LC integrity (inverted signal) and Aβ deposition (PiB binding) were synergistically associated with longitudinal bilateral MTL, medial inferior occipito-temporal and posterior occipital tau accumulation (FTP binding) (P < 0.05 cluster-corrected for multiple comparisons) using whole-brain voxel-wise level GLM analysis (n = 77 independent individuals). The brain projection shows one-tailed results (z-score > 1.64; the color bar shows the z-statistics; cooler colors represent a stronger association). The results are displayed on sagittal, coronal and axial brain views using FSLeyes (FSL, FMRIB). b, Lower LC integrity was related to higher Aβ-related tau accumulation in the MTL approximately 3 years later using robust linear regression analysis (n = 75 independent individuals; two-tailed analysis). Then, we used Johnson–Neyman analysis to define the range of PiB values at which the LC–tau association is significant: PiB DVR PVC = 1.26 or 13.94 CL for the left cluster; PiB DVR PVC = 1.20 or 9.67 CL for the right cluster (ranges are indicated by the gray rectangular shadow). Black fit lines represent mean LC integrity, red fit lines indicate +1 × s.d., blue fit lines indicate −1 × s.d. and shaded areas around the fit lines show 95% CI.