Personalized modeling of neurodegeneration determines dementia severity from EEG recordings

INTRODUCTION: Early identification of dementia is necessary for a timely onset of therapeutic care. However, cortical structural alterations associated with early dementia are difficult to disclose. METHODS: We developed a cortical model of dementia-related neurodegeneration accounting for slowing of local dynamics and global connectivity degradation. We collected EEG recordings at rest from subjects in healthy (HC), Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) condition. For each patient, we estimated neurodegeneration model parameters based on individual EEG recordings. RESULTS: Our model outperformed standard EEG analysis not only in discriminating between HC and MCI conditions (F1 score 0.95 vs 0.85) but also in identifying SCD patients with biological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease in the cerebrospinal fluid (recall 0.87 vs 0.50). DISCUSSION: Personalized neurodegeneration models could both support classification of MCI and assess the risk of progression from SCD to Alzheimer based only on economical and non-invasive EEG recording ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial NCT05569083 ### Funding Statement This project is funded by Tuscany Region PRedicting the EVolution of SubjectIvE Cognitive Decline to Alzheimers Disease With machine learning PREVIEW CUP.D18D20001300002. THE (Tuscany Health Ecosystem) Project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research PNRR Next Generation EU Projects Project funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3 - Call for tender No. 341 of 15/03/2022 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union NextGenerationEU Award Number: Project code PE0000006, Concession Decree No. 1553 of 11/10/2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP D93C22000930002, A multiscale integrated approach to the study of the nervous system in health and disease (MNESYS) ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: All subjects were recruited in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of Careggi University Hospital (Florence, Italy). The study was approved by the local Institutional Review Board (Comitato Etico di Area Vasta Centro reference 15691oss). All participants in this study signed an informed consent, agreeing to participate and to share the results deriving from their data. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors