GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Maxime Van Egroo
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Justinas Narbutas
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Vincenzo Muto
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Mohamed Ali Bahri
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; GIGA-In Silico Medicine, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Fabienne Collette
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Pierre Maquet
GIGA-Cyclotron Research Centre-In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium; Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Sleep alteration is a hallmark of ageing and emerges as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While the fine-tuned coalescence of sleep microstructure elements may influence age-related cognitive trajectories, its association with AD processes is not fully established. Here, we investigated whether the coupling of spindles and slow waves (SW) is associated with early amyloid-β (Aβ) brain burden, a hallmark of AD neuropathology, and cognitive change over 2 years in 100 healthy individuals in late-midlife (50–70 years; 68 women). We found that, in contrast to other sleep metrics, earlier occurrence of spindles on slow-depolarisation SW is associated with higher medial prefrontal cortex Aβ burden (p=0.014, r²β*=0.06) and is predictive of greater longitudinal memory decline in a large subsample (p=0.032, r²β*=0.07, N=66). These findings unravel early links between sleep, AD-related processes, and cognition and suggest that altered coupling of sleep microstructure elements, key to its mnesic function, contributes to poorer brain and cognitive trajectories in ageing.
