Earlier Alzheimer's disease onset is associated with a shift of tau pathology towards brain hubs which facilitates tau spreading

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), younger symptom onset is associated accelerated cognitive decline and tau spreading, yet the drivers of faster disease manifestation in patients with earlier symptom onset are unknown. Earlier symptom onset is associated with stronger tau pathology in fronto‐parietal regions which typically harbor globally connected hubs that are central for cognition. Since tau spreads across connected regions, globally connected hubs may accelerate tau spreading due to their large number of connections to other brain regions. Thus, we hypothesized that a pattern shift of tau pathology towards globally connected brain hubs may facilitate tau spreading and earlier symptom manifestation in AD.