# Characterizing sleep brain dynamics associated with Alzheimer's disease pathology and progression in humans using EEG source localization and PET

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,686,029

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that is the most common cause of dementia. AD
encompasses a range of pathophysiologic processes including accumulation of amyloid-beta, neurofibrillary
tau tangles, neuronal degeneration, and neuroinflammation. There is now strong evidence suggesting that
changes in brain dynamics during sleep are related to development of underlying neuropathology. Previous
studies have examined correlations between scalp EEG features and coarse summary measures of PET
amyloid and tau, but the more precise link between neural electrophysiology and amyloid/tau pathology at
site-, region-, and network-levels has not yet been analyzed in detail. Characterizing these spatially and
functionally specific patterns is critical for future early detection of AD using sleep-related biomarkers,
development of sleep interventions to slow disease progression, and electrophysiological monitoring of
amyloid/tau-centric treatments. Meanwhile, over the past several years, our group has made significant
advances in EEG source localization methods that enable localization of cerebral currents in cortical and
subcortical regions at a resolution that is comparable to PET and fMRI. In this project, we propose to
measure high-density EEG during sleep in humans, alongside PET and MRI, across the stages of AD from
Preclinical to Mild Cognitive Impairment to mild AD dementia.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10994019
- **Project number:** 7R01AG080678-02
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** BRADFORD C DICKERSON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,686,029
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2022-12-15 → 2027-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10994019

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10994019, Characterizing sleep brain dynamics associated with Alzheimer's disease pathology and progression in humans using EEG source localization and PET (7R01AG080678-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10994019. Licensed CC0.

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