Cognitively healthy young adults with APOEe4 gene show disrupted functional connectivity of graph properties in multiple resting-state networks

The apolipoprotein (APOE) e4 allele is associated with brain changes in healthy carriers that are similar to changes observed in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, including abnormalities in functional connectivity. The trajectory of these changes across the lifespan, specifically in early adulthood is still not clear. This study explores the link between the APOE genotype and functional connectivity in 129 cognitively healthy Chinese Han college students (aged 17-22 years). By using graph theory, we assessed the connectivity in seven resting-state networks of interest using three different thresholding methods and three different forms of network parcellation. Average Path Length and Closeness Centrality were disrupted in e4 carriers in the sensorimotor, visual, salience, and Default Mode salience networks; with effects replicated using different thresholding but not different parcellation methods. This study demonstrated the genetics-related vulnerability in the brain of young APOEe4 carriers across multiple resting-state networks.