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Open Imaging Index
MRI PET Brain

PREVENT-AD

PResymptomatic EValuation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease

Longitudinal brain MRI, amyloid and tau PET, cognition and fluid biomarkers from cognitively unimpaired older adults with a parent or siblings affected by Alzheimer's disease, followed yearly to study its presymptomatic phase. Single site in Montreal, shared in an open and a registered access tier.

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Overview

PREVENT-AD is a single-site cohort run by the StoP-AD Centre at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal. It enrolled cognitively unimpaired adults aged 60 or older (55 to 59 if close to the onset age of their affected relative) with a parent or several siblings who had Alzheimer-like dementia, and has followed them yearly since 2011 to study the presymptomatic phase of Alzheimer's disease. A two-year naproxen prevention trial (INTREPAD) ran inside the cohort. Participants consented after the fact to sharing, and the data are released in two tiers: an open tier and a registered tier for verified researchers and physicians.

Composition

Of 386 participants retained from the 2011 to 2017 enrolment, 349 agreed to sharing (247 women, 102 men, mean baseline age 63.6 years). The first release (Stage 1, 2011 to 2017) shares up to four years of follow-up. The second release (Stage 2, to December 2023) adds later MRI visits, amyloid PET with [18F]NAV4694 for 232 participants and tau PET with [18F]flortaucipir for 229, clinical progression (102 shared participants classified as having mild cognitive impairment at some visit), cognition, questionnaires, actigraphy, genetics, CSF and plasma biomarkers, and derived imaging measures.

The open tier holds basic demographics and raw MRI of 308 participants in MINC and BIDS. MRI of 37 more participants with potentially identifying incidental findings, all non-imaging data and the Stage 2 data are in the registered tier only.

Acquisition

All MRI was acquired on one Siemens 3 T scanner, a TIM Trio with a 12-channel coil until 2017 and, after an upgrade, a Prisma Fit with a 32-channel coil from 2019. Stage 1 sessions included T1w MPRAGE, FLAIR, T2*-weighted GRE, diffusion, pseudo-continuous ASL, resting-state fMRI and an episodic memory task fMRI. Participants enrolled after June 2016 had MP2RAGE, multi-echo GRE and high-resolution T2w instead of the task. Stage 2 used multi-echo resting-state fMRI and multi-shell diffusion. PET was acquired on a Siemens HRRT at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Anatomical images are defaced and image headers scrubbed.

Known limitations

The cohort is almost entirely White, mostly French-speaking and from the Montreal area. Sequences changed between the two phases, so pooled analyses may need harmonization. Visit coverage varies because PET, MEG and many Stage 2 measures came from separate investigator projects. Raw MEG is held in a different archive and is not part of this dataset.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 349 subjects.

Sex

  • Female 247 71%
  • Male 102 29%

Section 2.3.3 in Tremblay-Mercier et al. 2021, NeuroImage Clinical (Stage 1 data descriptor)

Contrast / sequence

Groups can overlap

  • T1-weighted 347 99%
  • BOLD fMRI 347 99%
  • Diffusion-weighted 346 99%
  • FLAIR 344 99%
  • T2*-weighted 342 98%
  • Arterial spin labeling 342 98%
  • T2-weighted 286 82%

Table 1 in Villeneuve et al. 2025, Alzheimer's & Dementia (Stage 2 release)

Age

mean 63.6 ± 5.1

No age bins reported.

Section 2.3.3 in Tremblay-Mercier et al. 2021, NeuroImage Clinical (Stage 1 data descriptor)

Modality

  • MRI 347 99%

Table 1 in Villeneuve et al. 2025, Alzheimer's & Dementia (Stage 2 release)

PET tracer

  • [18F]NAV4694 232 66%
  • [18F]flortaucipir 229 66%

Table 1 in Villeneuve et al. 2025, Alzheimer's & Dementia (Stage 2 release)

Condition

Groups can overlap

  • Mild cognitive impairment 102 29%

Section 3.2 in Villeneuve et al. 2025, Alzheimer's & Dementia (Stage 2 release)

License and access

Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer

Access
Free registration

Create an account and accept terms online

Two tiers. The open tier (openpreventad.loris.ca) holds basic demographics and raw MRI of participants without potentially identifying incidental findings; anyone can request an account after accepting the terms of use. The registered tier (registeredpreventad.loris.ca) adds MRI with incidental findings, later MRI follow-ups, amyloid and tau PET, cognition, genetics, CSF and plasma biomarkers and derived measures, and is open only to faculty researchers and physicians whose status the PREVENT-AD team verifies. Both are also listed on the CONP portal.

Access page

Different parts of the data carry different licenses. The summary on the right shows the most restrictive answer per rule.

For Data downloaded from the open tier (openpreventad.loris.ca).

Open PREVENT-AD Terms of Use

Seven agreements accepted when requesting an account on the open LORIS portal. Data are for neuroscience research, may not be sold, redistributed or used to re-identify participants, need any required approvals and must be cited as PREVENT-AD in publications.

Original license text Version read: Agreements on the Open PREVENT-AD account request page, read 2026-10-11 (same text as Open_PREVENT-AD_Terms_of_Use.png) Checked 2026-10-11

What you can do

  • Conditional
  • Not stated
  • Not stated
  • Not stated
  • Yes

What you can share

  • No
  • Not stated
  • Share trained models Not stated

What you must do

  • Yes
  • Share alike No
  • Yes
  • Conditional
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • Yes
  • No

Commercial license: Not stated

For Data downloaded from the registered tier (registeredpreventad.loris.ca).

Registered PREVENT-AD Terms of Use

Seven agreements accepted when a verified researcher or physician requests an account on the registered LORIS portal. Data are for neuroscience research, may not be sold, redistributed or used to re-identify participants and need any required approvals. Publications must add the PREVENT-AD Research Group to the author line and cite a PREVENT-AD reference paper.

Original license text Version read: Agreements on the Registered PREVENT-AD account request page, read 2026-10-11 (Stage 2 wording) Checked 2026-10-11

What you can do

  • Conditional
  • Not stated
  • Not stated
  • Not stated
  • Yes

What you can share

  • No
  • Not stated
  • Share trained models Not stated

What you must do

  • Yes
  • Share alike No
  • Yes
  • Conditional
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • Yes
  • No

Commercial license: Not stated

Citation

Tremblay-Mercier J, Madjar C, Das S, et al. Open science datasets from PREVENT-AD, a longitudinal cohort of pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease. NeuroImage: Clinical 31:102733 (2021). doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102733; Villeneuve S, Poirier J, Breitner JCS, et al. The PREVENT-AD cohort: Accelerating Alzheimer's disease research and treatment in Canada and beyond. Alzheimer's & Dementia 21:e70653 (2025). doi:10.1002/alz.70653

Sources

Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.