Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the differences in brain volume and cortical thickness among individuals with normal cognition (NC) and those with NCDs, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. The aim was to identify the brain parameters supporting clinical decision-making for NCDs. METHOD: A total of 116 participants were categorized into dementia, MCI, and NC groups, and their brain scans using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were processed and automatedly analyzed with FreeSurfer to obtain the absolute brain volume, volume normalized by intracranial volume (ICV), and cortical thickness. Patients with dementia exhibited a significantly smaller brain volume and cortical thickness than the MCI and NC groups. RESULTS: The left amygdala/ICV ratio demonstrated excellent performance in diagnosing early NCDs, with a cutpoint of ≤0.089, providing 83.30% sensitivity, 84.20% specificity, and 83.82% accuracy. For MCI, a cutpoint of ≤0.099 for the left amygdala/ICV yielded 96.70% sensitivity, 83.30% specificity, and 88.46% accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggested that reductions in brain volume and cortical thickness correlate with cognitive decline. Utilizing FreeSurfer and MRI data, particularly the left amygdala/ICV ratio, may serve as a valuable biomarker for the early identification of individuals at risk for developing NCDs.