An open dataset of cerebral tau deposition in young healthy adults based on MK6240 positron emission tomography
Tauopathies are pathologies wherein phosphorylated insoluble tau aggregates in neurons, leading to neuronal dysfunction and degeneration. Positron emission tomography (PET) can measure tau deposition in vivo, with second-generation radiotracers such as [18F]MK6240 showing high affinity for tau with minimal off-target binding. While typically observed in conditions associated with advanced age, notably Alzheimer's disease (AD), tauopathies are also implicated in pathologies affecting younger individuals. This includes autosomal dominant AD, Niemann-Pick disease type C, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and epilepsy, thus highlighting the need for generating normative data in non-geriatric populations. Here, we present a dataset of 33 young to middle-age healthy adults (mean age 32.8{+/-}10.2 years, 12 female) with [18F]MK6240 PET data and T1w magnetic resonance imaging. Longitudinal data are also available in a subset of 9 participants with a minimum follow-up time of 1 year. Our dataset aims to support imaging biomarker studies on younger individuals who may be at risk for AD and to advance work in tauopathies affecting non-geriatric populations, who are generally excluded from studies focused on neurodegeneration.