Estimation of positron emission tomography amyloid load and related biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease using evoked potential tomography EEG: development and internal validation in a cross-sectional cohort

Rauchmann, Boris-Stephan; Hamet, James; Lai, Jesyin; Kafi, Homeira; Rexwinkle, Joe; Brendel, Matthias; Franzmeier, Nicolai; Kurz, Carolin; Pogarell, Oliver; Levin, Johannes; Höglinger, Günter; Perneczky, Robert (2026): Estimation of positron emission tomography amyloid load and related biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease using evoked potential tomography EEG: development and internal validation in a cross-sectional cohort. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 18: 147. ISSN 1758-9193

Abstract

Background

Dementia affects over 50 million individuals globally, predominantly due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Effective early detection and intervention remain clinical challenges, as there is a lack of unified, portable solutions to assess multiple biomarkers.

Methods

We evaluated Evoked Potential Tomography (EPT), an EEG-based method using a novel visual evoked potential protocol. An automated pipeline for EEG preprocessing, ERP extraction, feature selection, optimization, and regression modeling was developed to estimate key AD biomarkers: PET-amyloid standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR), CSF phosphorylated tau ( p -tau181), Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores.

Results

Regression models using ERP features from dementia participants demonstrated strong correlations ( r = 0.8–0.94, p < 0.01) between predicted and true PET-amyloid SUVR, p -tau181, FCSRT, and MMSE values. In an independent external cohort, PET-amyloid SUVR predictions remained significantly associated with true values ( r = 0.60, p < 0.01).

Discussion

Despite limitations, these preliminary results support EPT’s potential as a sensitive and non-invasive method for estimating AD-related biomarkers in a clinically enriched AD cohort. Further validation studies are ongoing.

• Dokumententyp: Artikel (Klinikum der LMU)
• Organisationseinheit (Fakultäten): 07 Medizin > Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy); 07 Medizin > Klinikum der LMU München > Klinik und Poliklink für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
• DFG-Fachsystematik der Wissenschaftsbereiche: Lebenswissenschaften
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 390857198
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 491502892