Fig. 4

Comparisons of presymptomatic/early-stage pathological features between the three MAPT variants

Plots portray the severity of grey matter tau burden (a), white matter tau burden (b) and neuronal degeneration (c) in the three early cases (1 presymptomatic L315R, 1 prodromal P301L and 1 early-stage G272V). The regional distribution of early tau burden differed between different variants (a-b). In contrast, neuronal degeneration was of similar severity and quite similar regional distribution, with few exceptions (medial temporal sparing and mild inferior parietal involvement in the P301L carrier; c). Data from only one brain hemisphere are shown for each case (L315R right, P301L right, G272V left)

Legend: %AO = percentage of area occupied (by tau-positive pixels); AMY = amygdala; ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; aSLF = anterior superior longitudinal fasciculus; ATC = anterior temporal cortex; CA1-4 = cornu ammonis 1–4; CAU = caudate nucleus; CC = corpus callosum; EC = entorhinal cortex; FIC = fronto-insular cortex; FG = fusiform gyrus; GD = gyrus dentatus; IC = internal capsule; IPL = inferior parietal lobule; MFC = middle frontal cortex; pSLF = posterior superior longitudinal fasciculus; PUT = putamen; SFC = superior frontal cortex; SUB = subiculum; TEC = transentorhinal cortex

Tau burden (y-axis, a-b) corresponds to the digitally measured %AO by tau pathology after applying natural logarithmic transformation