  Alzheimer's disease (AD) causes alterations of brain network structure and
function. The latter consists of connectivity changes between oscillatory
processes at different frequency channels. We proposed a multi-layer network
approach to analyze multiple-frequency brain networks inferred from
magnetoencephalographic recordings during resting-states in AD subjects and
age-matched controls. Main results showed that brain networks tend to
facilitate information propagation across different frequencies, as measured by
the multi-participation coefficient (MPC). However, regional connectivity in AD
subjects was abnormally distributed across frequency bands as compared to
controls, causing significant decreases of MPC. This effect was mainly
localized in association areas and in the cingulate cortex, which acted, in the
healthy group, as a true inter-frequency hub. MPC values significantly
correlated with memory impairment of AD subjects, as measured by the total
recall score. Most predictive regions belonged to components of the
default-mode network that are typically affected by atrophy, metabolism
disruption and amyloid-beta deposition. We evaluated the diagnostic power of
the MPC and we showed that it led to increased classification accuracy (78.39%)
and sensitivity (91.11%). These findings shed new light on the brain functional
alterations underlying AD and provide analytical tools for identifying
multi-frequency neural mechanisms of brain diseases.
