CRASHS templates and models

This paper for the 20th anniversary of the Alzheimer’s Disease
Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) provides an overview of magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) of medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions in ADNI using a
dedicated high-resolution T2-weighted sequence. A review of the work that
supported the inclusion of this imaging modality into ADNI Phase 3 is
followed by a brief description of the ADNI MTL imaging and analysis
protocols and a summary of studies that have used these data. This review
is supplemented by a novel study that uses novel surface-based tools to
characterize MTL neurodegeneration across biomarker-defined AD stages.
This analysis reveals a pattern of spreading cortical thinning associated
with increasing levels of tau pathology in presence of elevated
beta-amyloid, with apparent epicenters in the transentorhinal region and
inferior hippocampal subfields. The paper concludes with an outlook for
high-resolution imaging of the MTL in ADNI Phase 4.