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Review
. 2025 Sep;21(9):e70648.
doi: 10.1002/alz.70648.

Recent advances in neuroimaging of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Julie Ottoy  1   2   3 , Nicole Owsicki  1 , Murat Bilgel  4 , Alexa Pichet Binette  5   6   7 , Gemma Salvadó  6   8 , Min Su Kang  1   2 , David M Cash  9   10 , Michael Ewers  11   12 , Renaud La Joie  13 , Laura E M Wisse  14 , Maged Goubran  1   2   15 , Tobey Betthauser  16   17
Affiliations
Review

Recent advances in neuroimaging of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Julie Ottoy et al. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

This review covers recent advances (2023-2024) in neuroimaging research into the pathophysiology, progression, and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD). Despite the rapid emergence of blood-based biomarkers, neuroimaging continues to be a vital area of research in ADRD. Here, we discuss neuroimaging as a powerful tool to topographically visualize and quantify amyloid, tau, neurodegeneration, inflammation, and vascular disease in the brain. We examine the utility of neuroimaging for (1) tracking the spatiotemporal progression of pathology, (2) serving as the reference standard for validating novel fluid biomarkers, (3) characterizing disease heterogeneity, (4) exploring the role of brain networks in ADRD progression, and (5) evaluating biomarkers for better individualized estimates of treatment benefit. Finally, we discuss advances in radiotracer development and AD risk factors. By reviewing the most promising breakthroughs in the neuroimaging field, we hope to spark new ideas for future discoveries that will deepen our understanding of ADRD. HIGHLIGHTS: The diagnostic and staging criteria for Alzheimer's disease (AD) were updated in 2024. Despite robust harmonization methods for amyloid beta positron emission tomography (PET), parallel efforts for tau PET remain challenging. Larger anti-amyloid drug effects were seen at lower levels of amyloid and tau PET. Phosphorylated tau217 (p-tau217) is currently the most promising plasma biomarker to detect AD pathology. There are new tracer developments for alpha-synuclein, primary tauopathies, and inflammation.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; amyloid; cerebrospinal fluid biomarker; cerebrovascular disease; clinical trials; connectivity; co‐pathology; disease staging and subtyping; heterogeneity; inflammation; neuroimaging; plasma biomarker; positron emission tomography; risk factors; tau.

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Conflict of interest statement

R.L.J. consulted for GE Healthcare. G.S. has received speaker fees from Springer and Adium. J.O., N.O., M.B., A.P.B., M.S.K., D.M.C., M.E., L.E.M.W., M.G., and T.B. have nothing to disclose. Author disclosures are available in the supporting information.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Recent highlights (2023–2024) of neuroimaging research in ADRD. Inner circle (colored text) represents the applications of imaging in ADRD research; outer boxes represent the main themes (black text) and subtopics (colored text) discussed in this review. Figure created with BioRender. ADRD, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias; ARIA, amyloid‐related imaging abnormality; FTD, frontotemporal dementia; SUVR, standardized uptake value ratio.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Connectivity and frequency of key themes in ADRD neuroimaging research. A, Connectogram indicating how the different themes of our review are connected across abstracts. B, Frequency table of words in the abstracts, depicted as a word cloud in which font size reflects word frequency. Methods are outlined in Methods S2 in supporting information. Aβ, amyloid beta; ADRD, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias; CVD, cerebrovascular disease; dev., development.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Continent and sex of first/last author for the papers included in this review. A, World map corresponding to the first author's affiliation (figure created with Datawrapper) and bar plots of the first and last authors’ affiliations. B, Sex of first and last author. The data were not verified with the authors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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