Jonathan Gallego-Rudolf

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects millions of people worldwide. It includes a long preclinical phase marked by silent pathological changes that precede cognitive decline. AD is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and tau tangles, which are known to disrupt brain function. My research leveraged multimodal neuroimaging and cognitive data from asymptomatic older adults with a family history of sporadic AD to examine how Aβ and tau jointly affect neurophysiological activity, and how combining MEG with other AD biomarkers improves early risk prediction. The findings show that Aβ and tau synergistically drive shifts from hyper- to hypoactivity, relating to cognitive decline and clinical progression. Furthermore, the intrinsic organization of the brain’s structural and functional networks shapes proteinopathy deposition, emphasizing a bidirectional association between brain function and proteinopathy accumulation during the preclinical stage of AD.

Jonathan Gallego-Rudolf is a researcher working with a variety of neuroimaging modalities (including MEG and PET) to study the brain and its pathologies, notably focusing on Alzheimer's and its progression from early to late stages. Previously, he completed a BSc in Psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an MSc in Neurobiology & Neurosciences at the same university. Most recently, he completed a PhD in Neuroscience at McGill University, working under the supervision of Drs. Sylvain Baillet and Sylvia Villeneuve. His research focused on studying brain dynamics related to pathological accumulation of amyloid and tau proteinopathies in people at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

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