Fig. 3. Cognitive outcomes are predicted by the biological link between LC and MTL tau burden.
a, The individuals’ LC-related follow-up MTL tau values were used as predictors of cognitive performance (averaged voxel FTP values (SUVR and PVC) extracted from the clusters surviving multiple comparison correction after conducting whole-brain voxel-wise level GLM analysis (n = 77 independent individuals). The brain projection shows one-tailed results of the whole-brain (z-score > 1.64; P < 0.05, cluster-corrected for multiple comparisons; the color bar shows the z-statistics, where cooler colors represent a stronger association). The results are displayed on a coronal brain view using FSLeyes (FSL, FMRIB). b, Higher LC-related MTL tau accumulation was associated with lower cognitive performance as measured by the PACC5 approximately 3 years later (n = 74 independent individuals). The plots reflect the relationship between tau accumulation and PACC5 z-scores adjusted by age, sex, years of education and CDR (robust linear regression and two-tailed analysis). Dots represent the individual predicted values of the relationship tested and the shaded areas around the fit lines show 95% CI. c, Follow-up MTL tau (FTP, SUVR and PVC) mediated the relationship between baseline LC intensityr and follow-up PACC5 performance (z-scores) 3 years later (two-tailed mediation analysis). The graphical representation of the mediated relationship displays the p-values of the estimates, while the forest plots depict the β-coefficients along with the 95% CI (n = 74 independent individuals).