In 2006, a group of researchers from the University of Minnesota published a dementia-related study titled in the journal NatureTrusted Source called “A specific amyloid-β [beta-amyloid] protein assembly in the brain impairs memory.” The study provides evidence supporting a specific protein clump in the brain, known as beta-amyloidTrusted Source, as a cause for Alzheimer’s disease.

The study used a mouse model to show how these protein clumps — also known as amyloid plaquesTrusted Source — could cause dementia.

Because of its findings, this study became very influential in Alzheimer’s disease research. To date, it has been cited in over 2,200 scientific papersTrusted Source and accessed more than 34,000 times.

Now an article recently published in Science reports that an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University believes some of the images were manipulated in the 2006 Nature study, calling into question the validity of its findings.