Johnson Lab - Gordon Center for Medical Imaging

About the lab

We are developing preventive therapies and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, we have been investigating imaging agents that can detect tau deposits in the brain related to cognitive impairment. We are exploring ways to use these imaging techniques to detect the risk of developing impairment.

Research

Major research interests include the early diagnosis and treatment monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia with Lewy bodies.

Determine the earliest brain changes that will predict development of memory loss and eventual cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease
Use PET scans to detect an abnormal form of a brain protein known as tau in living humans, and relate tau pathology to age, brain shrinkage, and cognitive impairment

Members

Faculty

Fellows

Students

Research Assistants

Selected Publications

Prokopiou PC, Engels-Domínguez N, Schultz AP, Sepulcre J, Koops EA, Papp KV, Marshall GA, Normandin MD, El Fakhri G, Rentz D, Sperling RA, Johnson KA, Jacobs HIL. Association of Novelty-Related Locus Coeruleus Function With Entorhinal Tau Deposition and Memory Decline in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease. Neurology 2023 101 (12):e1206-e1217
Hanseeuw BJ, Johnson KA. Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: how to predict who will decline next year? Brain Commun 2023 5 (2):fcad079
Prokopiou PC, Engels-Domínguez N, Papp KV, Scott MR, Schultz AP, Schneider C, Farrell ME, Buckley RF, Quiroz YT, El Fakhri G, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA, Jacobs HIL. Lower novelty-related locus coeruleus function is associated with Aβ-related cognitive decline in clinically healthy individuals. Nat Commun 2022 13 (1):1571
Jacobs HIL, Becker JA, Kwong K, Engels-Domínguez N, Prokopiou PC, Papp KV, Properzi M, Hampton OL, d’Oleire Uquillas F, Sanchez JS, Rentz DM, El Fakhri G, Normandin MD, Price JC, Bennett DA, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. In vivo and neuropathology data support locus coeruleus integrity as indicator of Alzheimer’s disease pathology and cognitive decline. Sci Transl Med 2021 13 (612):eabj2511
Yang F, Chowdhury SR, Jacobs HIL, Sepulcre J, Wedeen VJ, Johnson KA, Dutta J. Longitudinal predictive modeling of tau progression along the structural connectome. Neuroimage 2021 237 ():118126
Rentz DM, Papp KV, Mayblyum DV, Sanchez JS, Klein H, Souillard-Mandar W, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Association of Digital Clock Drawing With PET Amyloid and Tau Pathology in Normal Older Adults. Neurology 2021 96 (14):e1844-e1854
Sanchez JS, Becker JA, Jacobs HIL, Hanseeuw BJ, Jiang S, Schultz AP, Properzi MJ, Katz SR, Beiser A, Satizabal CL, O’Donnell A, DeCarli C, Killiany R, El Fakhri G, Normandin MD, Gómez-Isla T, Quiroz YT, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Seshadri S, Augustinack J, Price JC, Johnson KA. The cortical origin and initial spread of medial temporal tauopathy in Alzheimer’s disease assessed with positron emission tomography. Sci Transl Med 2021 13 (577):
Jacobs HIL, Augustinack JC, Schultz AP, Hanseeuw BJ, Locascio J, Amariglio RE, Papp KV, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. The presubiculum links incipient amyloid and tau pathology to memory function in older persons. Neurology 2020; 94(18):e1916-e1928

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Song TA, Yang F, Chowdhury SR, Kim K, Johnson KA, El Fakhri G, Li Q, Dutta J. PET Image Deblurring and Super-Resolution with an MR-Based Joint Entropy Prior. IEEE Trans Comput Imaging 2019; 5(4):530-539
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Guehl NJ, Wooten DW, Yokell DL, Moon SH, Dhaynaut M, Katz S, Moody KA, Gharagouzloo C, Kas A, Johnson KA, El Fakhri G, Normandin MD. Evaluation of pharmacokinetic modeling strategies for in-vivo quantification of tau with the radiotracer [F]MK6240 in human subjects. Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging 2019; 46(10):2099-2111
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Yang F, Roy Chowdhury S, Jacobs HIL, Johnson KA, Dutta J. A longitudinal model for tau aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease based on structural connectivity. Inf Process Med Imaging 2019; 11492:384-393
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Wooten DW, Ortiz-Terán L, Zubcevik N, Zhang X, Huang C, Sepulcre J, Atassi N, Johnson K, Zafonte R, El Fakhri G. Multimodal Signatures of Tau Pathology, Neuronal Fiber Integrity, and Functional Connectivity in Traumatic Brain Injury. J. Neurotrauma 2019; 36(23):3233-3243
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Marshall GA, Gatchel JR, Donovan NJ, Muniz MC, Schultz AP, Becker JA, Chhatwal JP, Hanseeuw BJ, Papp KV, Amariglio RE, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Regional Tau Correlates of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and Apathy in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia. J. Alzheimers Dis. 2019; 67(2):757-768
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Sperling RA, Mormino EC, Schultz AP, Betensky RA, Papp KV, Amariglio RE, Hanseeuw BJ, Buckley R, Chhatwal J, Hedden T, Marshall GA, Quiroz YT, Donovan NJ, Jackson J, Gatchel JR, Rabin JS, Jacobs H, Yang HS, Properzi M, Kirn DR, Rentz DM, Johnson KA. The impact of amyloid-beta and tau on prospective cognitive decline in older individuals. Ann. Neurol. 2019; 85(2):181-193
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Huijbers W, Schultz AP, Papp KV, LaPoint MR, Hanseeuw B, Chhatwal JP, Hedden T, Johnson KA, Sperling RA. Tau Accumulation in Clinically Normal Older Adults Is Associated with Hippocampal Hyperactivity. J. Neurosci. 2019; 39(3):548-556
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Properzi MJ, Buckley RF, Chhatwal JP, Donohue MC, Lois C, Mormino EC, Johnson KA, Sperling RA, Schultz AP. Nonlinear Distributional Mapping (NoDiM) for harmonization across amyloid-PET radiotracers. Neuroimage 2019; 186:446-454
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Lois C, Gonzalez I, Johnson KA, Price JC. PET imaging of tau protein targets: a methodology perspective. Brain Imaging Behav 2019 Apr;13(2):333-344.
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Sepulcre J, Grothe MJ, d’Oleire Uquillas F, Ortiz-Terán L, Diez I, Yang HS, Jacobs HIL, Hanseeuw BJ, Li Q, El-Fakhri G, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Neurogenetic contributions to amyloid beta and tau spreading in the human cortex. Nat. Med. 2018; 24(12):1910-1918
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Hanseeuw BJ, Jonas V, Jackson J, Betensky RA, Rentz DM, Johnson KA, Sperling RA, Donovan NJ. Association of anxiety with subcortical amyloidosis in cognitively normal older adults. Mol. Psychiatry 2018;
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Hanseeuw BJ, Betensky RA, Mormino EC, Schultz AP, Sepulcre J, Becker JA, Jacobs HIL, Buckley RF, LaPoint MR, Vanini P, Donovan NJ, Chhatwal JP, Marshall GA, Papp KV, Amariglio RE, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. PET staging of amyloidosis using striatum. Alzheimers Dement 2018; 14(10):1281-1292
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Lee CM, Jacobs HIL, Marquié M, Becker JA, Andrea NV, Jin DS, Schultz AP, Frosch MP, Gómez-Isla T, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. 18F-Flortaucipir Binding in Choroid Plexus: Related to Race and Hippocampus Signal. J. Alzheimers Dis. 2018; 62(4):1691-1702
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Jacobs HIL, Hedden T, Schultz AP, Sepulcre J, Perea RD, Amariglio RE, Papp KV, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Structural tract alterations predict downstream tau accumulation in amyloid-positive older individuals. Nat. Neurosci. 2018; 21(3):424-431
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Quiroz YT, Sperling RA, Norton DJ, Baena A, Arboleda-Velasquez JF, Cosio D, Schultz A, Lapoint M, Guzman-Velez E, Miller JB, Kim LA, Chen K, Tariot PN, Lopera F, Reiman EM, Johnson KA. Association Between Amyloid and Tau Accumulation in Young Adults With Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer Disease. JAMA Neurol 2018 May 1;75(5):548-556.

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Jacobs HIL, Hedden T, Schultz AP, Sepulcre J, Perea RD, Amariglio RE, Papp KV, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Structural tract alterations predict downstream tau accumulation in amyloid-positive older individuals. Nat. Neurosci. 2018; 21(3):424-431

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Sepulcre J, Grothe MJ, Sabuncu M, Chhatwal J, Schultz AP, Hanseeuw B, El Fakhri G, Sperling R, Johnson KA. Hierarchical Organization of Tau and Amyloid Deposits in the Cerebral Cortex. JAMA Neurol 2017; 74(7):813-820

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Sepulcre J, Sabuncu MR, Li Q, El Fakhri G, Sperling R, Johnson KA. Tau and amyloid β proteins distinctively associate to functional network changes in the aging brain. Alzheimers Dement 2017; 13(11):1261-1269

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Hanseeuw BJ, Betensky RA, Schultz AP, Papp KV, Mormino EC, Sepulcre J, Bark JS, Cosio DM, LaPoint M, Chhatwal JP, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Fluorodeoxyglucose metabolism associated with tau-amyloid interaction predicts memory decline. Ann. Neurol. 2017; 81(4):583-596

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Rentz DM, Mormino EC, Papp KV, Betensky RA, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Cognitive resilience in clinical and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: the Association of Amyloid and Tau Burden on cognitive performance. Brain Imaging Behav 2017; 11(2):383-390

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Gomperts SN, Locascio JJ, Makaretz SJ, Schultz A, Caso C, Vasdev N, Sperling R, Growdon JH, Dickerson BC, Johnson K. Tau Positron Emission Tomographic Imaging in the Lewy Body Diseases. JAMA Neurol 2016; 73(11):1334-1341

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Chhatwal JP, Schultz AP, Marshall GA, Boot B, Gomez-Isla T, Dumurgier J, LaPoint M, Scherzer C, Roe AD, Hyman BT, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Temporal T807 binding correlates with CSF tau and phospho-tau in normal elderly. Neurology 2016; 87(9):920-6

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Johnson KA, Schultz A, Betensky RA, Becker JA, Sepulcre J, Rentz D, Mormino E, Chhatwal J, Amariglio R, Papp K, Marshall G, Albers M, Mauro S, Pepin L, Alverio J, Judge K, Philiossaint M, Shoup T, Yokell D, Dickerson B, Gomez-Isla T, Hyman B, Vasdev N, Sperling R. Tau positron emission tomographic imaging in aging and early Alzheimer disease. Ann. Neurol. 2016; 79(1):110-9

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Hanseeuw BJ, Schultz AP, Betensky RA, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Decreased hippocampal metabolism in high-amyloid mild cognitive impairment. Alzheimers Dement 2016; 12(12):1288-1296

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Sepulcre J, Schultz AP, Sabuncu M, Gomez-Isla T, Chhatwal J, Becker A, Sperling R, Johnson KA. In Vivo Tau, Amyloid, and Gray Matter Profiles in the Aging Brain. J. Neurosci. 2016; 36(28):7364-74

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Maye JE, Betensky RA, Gidicsin CM, Locascio J, Becker JA, Pepin L, Carmasin J, Rentz DM, Marshall GA, Blacker D, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Maternal dementia age at onset in relation to amyloid burden in non-demented elderly offspring. Neurobiol. Aging 2016; 40():61-67

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Greve DN, Salat DH, Bowen SL, Izquierdo-Garcia D, Schultz AP, Catana C, Becker JA, Svarer C, Knudsen GM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Different partial volume correction methods lead to different conclusions: An (18)F-FDG-PET study of aging. Neuroimage 2016; 132():334-343

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Gidicsin CM, Maye JE, Locascio JJ, Pepin LC, Philiossaint M, Becker JA, Younger AP, Dekhtyar M, Schultz AP, Amariglio RE, Marshall GA, Rentz DM, Hedden T, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Cognitive activity relates to cognitive performance but not to Alzheimer disease biomarkers. Neurology 2015; 85(1):48-55

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Sperling R, Mormino E, Johnson K. The evolution of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: implications for prevention trials. Neuron 2014; 84(3):608-22

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Sepulcre J, Sabuncu MR, Becker A, Sperling R, Johnson KA. In vivo characterization of the early states of the amyloid-beta network. Brain 2013; 136(Pt 7):2239-52

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Sperling RA, Karlawish J, Johnson KA. Preclinical Alzheimer disease-the challenges ahead. Nat Rev Neurol 2013; 9(1):54-8

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Johnson KA, Sperling RA, Sepulcre J. Functional connectivity in Alzheimer’s disease: measurement and meaning. Biol. Psychiatry 2013; 74(5):318-9

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Johnson KA, Sperling RA, Gidicsin CM, Carmasin JS, Maye JE, Coleman RE, Reiman EM, Sabbagh MN, Sadowsky CH, Fleisher AS, Murali Doraiswamy P, Carpenter AP, Clark CM, Joshi AD, Lu M, Grundman M, Mintun MA, Pontecorvo MJ, Skovronsky DM, . Florbetapir (F18-AV-45) PET to assess amyloid burden in Alzheimer’s disease dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and normal aging. Alzheimers Dement 2013; 9(5 Suppl):S72-83

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Johnson KA, Minoshima S, Bohnen NI, Donohoe KJ, Foster NL, Herscovitch P, Karlawish JH, Rowe CC, Carrillo MC, Hartley DM, Hedrick S, Pappas V, Thies WH, , , . Appropriate use criteria for amyloid PET: a report of the Amyloid Imaging Task Force, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, and the Alzheimer’s Association. Alzheimers Dement 2013; 9(1):e-1-16

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Johnson KA, Minoshima S, Bohnen NI, Donohoe KJ, Foster NL, Herscovitch P, Karlawish JH, Rowe CC, Carrillo MC, Hartley DM, Hedrick S, Pappas V, Thies WH. Appropriate use criteria for amyloid PET: a report of the Amyloid Imaging Task Force, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, and the Alzheimer’s Association. J. Nucl. Med. 2013; 54(3):476-90

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Sepulcre J, Sabuncu MR, Yeo TB, Liu H, Johnson KA. Stepwise connectivity of the modal cortex reveals the multimodal organization of the human brain. J. Neurosci. 2012; 32(31):10649-61

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Sepulcre J, Sabuncu MR, Johnson KA. Network assemblies in the functional brain. Curr. Opin. Neurol. 2012; 25(4):384-91

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Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Dementia: new criteria but no new treatments. Lancet Neurol 2012; 11(1):4-5

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Marshall GA, Olson LE, Frey MT, Maye J, Becker JA, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Instrumental activities of daily living impairment is associated with increased amyloid burden. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2011; 31(6):443-50

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Becker JA, Hedden T, Carmasin J, Maye J, Rentz DM, Putcha D, Fischl B, Greve DN, Marshall GA, Salloway S, Marks D, Buckner RL, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Amyloid-β associated cortical thinning in clinically normal elderly. Ann. Neurol. 2011; 69(6):1032-42

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Rentz DM, Locascio JJ, Becker JA, Moran EK, Eng E, Buckner RL, Sperling RA, Johnson KA. Cognition, reserve, and amyloid deposition in normal aging. Ann. Neurol. 2010; 67(3):353-64

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