Arterial pulsation is the brain’s natural pump, clears waste, and influences brain health, dementia, and tiny vessel disease.
Researchers have devised a new brain scan technique that help us better interpret on aging and Alzheimer’s disease (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Assessing cerebral microvascular volumetric with high-resolution 4D cerebral blood volume MRI at 7 T
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The brain imaging method uses very high field 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tracks how the brain’s tiny blood vessels contracts and expands with each heartbeat.
The study was led at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The study was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
The new non-invasive brain scan technique can be called as “microvascular volumetric pulsatility” in living people. These pulses elevate with age, especially in the brain’s deep region of white matter.
This specific region is linked to brain communication, and susceptible to lower blood flow as the person gets older. These increased pulsations could derail the brain system, consequently speeding up the memory loss and the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Measuring Pulsations in Tiny Brain Vessels
“Arterial pulsation is like the brain’s natural pump, helping to move fluids and clear waste,” said Danny JJ Wang, PhD, professor of neurology and radiology at the Keck School of Medicine and senior author of the study.
“Our new method allows us to see, for the first time in people, how the volumes of those tiny blood vessels change with aging and vascular risk factors. This opens new avenues for studying brain health, dementia, and small vessel disease.”
For decades, researchers have known that large artery stiffness and pulsatility are linked to stroke, dementia, and small vessel disease. But until now, it has been nearly impossible to measure these pulsations in the brain’s smallest vessels without invasive methods used only in animal studies.
Combined MRI Techniques to Track Microvessels Changes
The USC team’s innovation combines two advanced MRI approaches—vascular space occupancy (VASO) and arterial spin labeling (ASL)—to track subtle volume changes in microvessels over the cardiac cycle. The researchers confirmed that older adults show heightened microvascular pulsations in deep white matter compared to younger adults, and that hypertension further amplifies these changes.
“These findings provide a missing link between what we see in large vessel imaging and the microvascular damage we observe in aging and Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead author Fanhua Guo, PhD, who is a postdoctoral researcher in Wang’s lab.
Link to the Brain’s Plumbing System and Alzheimer’s Disease
Excessive vascular pulsatility may impair the function of the brain’s “glymphatic system,” a newly recognized network that clears waste products like beta-amyloid—proteins that build up in Alzheimer’s disease. Over time, disrupted fluid circulation could accelerate cognitive decline.
“Being able to measure these tiny vascular pulses in vivo is a critical step forward,” said Arthur W. Toga, PhD, director of the Stevens INI. “This technology not only advances our understanding of brain aging but also holds promise for early diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative disorders.”
A New Biomarker for Studying Dementia Risk
The researchers are exploring how the method could be adapted for wider clinical use, including on more commonly available 3T MRI scanners.
Future studies will test whether microvascular volumetric pulsatility predicts cognitive outcomes and whether it can serve as a biomarker for early intervention in Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions.
“This is just the beginning,” Wang said. “Our goal is to bring this from research labs into clinical practice, where it could guide diagnosis, prevention, and treatment strategies for millions at risk of dementia.”
Reference:
- Assessing cerebral microvascular volumetric with high-resolution 4D cerebral blood volume MRI at 7 T – (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-025-00722-1)
Source-Eurekalert