MAPT and Alzheimer disease: Recent studies have provided evidence that AD-related tau cytoskeletal pathology is initiated in subcortical regions, which supports the widely held hypothesis that early occurring subcortical tau cytoskeletal pathology, including that in the thalamus, may play a crucial role in the cascade of the early pathological events of AD (Rub et al., 2000; Grinberg et al., 2009; Stratmann et al., 2016).