Overview
- The PsychAD Consortium released the dataset and analyses on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, publishing nine papers including three in Nature that together present the atlas.
- The map is built from single-nucleus RNA sequencing of more than 6.3 million cells from 1,494 post-mortem donors aged less than one year to 108, including neurotypical controls and people with eight brain disorders.
- Analyses define three lifespan phases in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with rapid early remodelling, relative stability after about age 24, and renewed remodelling beginning around age 65.
- The team found strong shared molecular signatures across Alzheimer’s, Lewy body disease, vascular dementia and Parkinson’s in nerve-cell development, neuronal communication and vascular biology, and shared microglial pathways between Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
- Researchers linked inherited genetic risk to specific genes and cell types across more than 14,000 genes, reconstructed daily (circadian) gene-activity patterns that weaken with age, and provided donor-level molecular profiles to help prioritize targets for functional follow-up and future therapies.