4.3 Article

Cortical Thinning at Midlife: The PATH Through Life Study

Journal

BRAIN TOPOGRAPHY
Volume 29, Issue 6, Pages 875-884

Publisher

SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10548-016-0509-z

Keywords

Midlife; Aging; Healthy; MRI; Cortical thickness; Longitudinal

Funding

  1. NHMRC [973302, 179805, 350833, 157125, 1002560]
  2. ARC [130101705, 12010227]
  3. Dementia Collaborative Research Centres
  4. Australian Commonwealth Government
  5. Canberra Hospital Salaried Doctors Private Practice Trust Fund

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Cortical thinning is a part of normal ageing. Recent studies suggest that accelerated cortical thinning in vulnerable regions may be a useful biomarker for neuropathologies including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Longitudinal studies, which have largely focused on older adults, have provided estimates of normative rates and patterns of age-related cortical thinning. Very little, however, is known about healthy cortical thinning at midlife. Here we provide longitudinal estimates of age-related cortical thinning observed over 8 years, in a large (n = 404) group of healthy individuals aged 44-49 years at baseline, who were scanned with MRI (1.5T) on up to three occasions. Age-related cortical thinning was assessed across the whole cortex. We measured a mean annual decrease in cortical thickness of 0.26 % on the left and 0.17 % on the right hemisphere, and largely affecting frontal and cingulate cortices. Medial and lateral temporal regions were generally spared. Studying regions that are specifically vulnerable to-or spared from-healthy age-related cortical thinning at midlife may be important for the early identification of neurodegeneration, including AD.

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