The extent of cortical spread of tau pathology is highly correlated with the cognitive status of patients with AD (9, 10), and recent tau PET imaging studies further confirm that tau pathological burden is associated with both disease symptomology and brain atrophy (11, 12), suggesting that tau inclusions are the major source of the neuronal and synaptic damage seen in AD brain. The gene discussed is MAPT; the disease is Brain atrophy.