Small-World Properties in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Alzheimer’s Disease: A Cortical Thickness MRI Study

Figure 6

Controls (blue), MCI stables (MCI S, green), and MCI converters (MCI C, red) all showed small-world characteristics with reduction of 𝛾 (≫1) in (a) and reduction of 𝜆 (≈1) in (b) with the reduction of sparsity. MCI converters showed lowest relative clustering coefficient (a) as well as lowest absolute clustering coefficient (c), indicating a reduction of local efficiency in MCI converters. MCI stables, however, had highest relative and absolute clustering coefficient (a) and (c) as well as shortest relative and absolute path lengths (b) and (d), indicating a compensatory mechanism of local and global efficiency in these MCI stables. Error bar denotes standard deviation.