Human tau pathology is associated with lonely, nontraveling slow waves linked to memory impairment

Memory markedly declines with age, exaggerated in those with Alzheimer’s disease, yet the mechanisms are still not resolved. Here we show that frontal lobe tau pathology in humans is associated with impaired en masse unity and cortical traveling propagation of nonrapid eye movement slow waves, linked to impaired memory retention. We elucidate these findings using positron-emission tomography tau brain imaging, and then replicate and extend them using Alzheimer’s disease pathology markers derived from cerebrospinal fluid in an independent clinical cohort.

Thus, tau-associated memory deficits are not wholly direct but indirectly linked to consequential ‘lonely’, nontraveling slow-wave events. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 12 print issues and online access Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout All source data for the main figures and Extended Data figures are available. Source data are provided with this paper Python scripts showing how to calculate cortical involvement and slow-wave propagation are available via GitHub at https://github.com/omersharonPhD/travellingWaves.

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