Decoding the radiomic features of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in individuals with accelerated cortical changes: implications for personalized transcranial magnetic stimulation

Purpose Image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is an emerging research field in neuroscience and rehabilitation medicine. Cortical morphometry, as a radiomic phenotype of aging, plays a vital role in developing personalized TMS model, yet few studies are afoot to examine the aging effects on region-specific morphometry and use it in the estimation of TMS-induced electric fields. Our study was aimed to investigate the radiomic features of bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and quantify the TMS-induced electric fields during aging.Approach Baseline, 1-year and 3-year structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from normal aging (NA) adults (n = 32) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) converters (n = 22) were drawn from the Open Access Series of Imaging Studies. The quantitative measures of radiomics included cortical thickness, folding, and scalp-to-cortex distance. Realistic head models were developed to simulate the impacts of radiomic features on TMS-induced E-fields using the finite-element method.Results A pronounced aging-related decrease was found in the gyrification of left DLPFC in MCI converters (t = 2.21, p = 0.035), which could predict the decline of global cognition at 3-year follow up. Along with the decreased gyrification in left DLPFC, the magnitude of TMS-induced E-fields was rapidly decreased in MCI converters (t = 2.56, p = 0.018).Conclusions MRI-informed radiomic features of the treatment targets have significant effects on the intensity and distribution of the stimulation-induced electric fields in prodromal dementia patients. Our findings highlight the importance of region-specific radiomics when conducting the transcranial brain stimulation in individuals with accelerated cortical changes, such as Alzheimer's disease.