Divergent Levels of Functional Connectivity Between Black Americans and Nonhispanic Whites.

Abstract

Black Americans are twice as likely as Nonhispanic Whites to develop Alzheimer’s Disease. In a past study, we found that race modifies the relationship between neuroimaging measures and Alzheimer’s biomarkers between functionally connected regions in the brains of Black Americans. In this study, we aim to replicate these findings in a larger cohort of participants and explore what other factors might be contributing to the observed biomarker-connectivity relationship. We found a marginally significant interaction for race by diagnosis such that Black Americans with dementia had lower connectivity between the precuneus and temporal pole. In contrast, our previous study found that Black Americans had increased connectivity within these regions.