Journal
BRAIN STRUCTURE & FUNCTION
Volume 221, Issue 6, Pages 3223-3235Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1097-5
Keywords
Ageing; White matter structure; Information processing speed; Diffusion MRI
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Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/F529254/1] Funding Source: Medline
- Medical Research Council [MR/M013111/1, G1001245, G0701120, MR/K026992/1, G0700704] Funding Source: Medline
- MRC [MR/M013111/1, G1001245, G0700704, G0701120] Funding Source: UKRI
- Medical Research Council [MR/K026992/1, MR/M013111/1, G1001245, G0701120, G0700704] Funding Source: researchfish
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Cognitive decline, especially the slowing of information processing speed, is associated with normal ageing. This decline may be due to brain cortico-cortical disconnection caused by age-related white matter deterioration. We present results from a large, narrow age range cohort of generally healthy, community-dwelling subjects in their seventies who also had their cognitive ability tested in youth (age 11 years). We investigate associations between older age brain white matter structure, several measures of information processing speed and childhood cognitive ability in 581 subjects. Analysis of diffusion tensor MRI data using Tract-based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) showed that all measures of information processing speed, as well as a general speed factor composed from these tests (g(speed)), were significantly associated with fractional anisotropy (FA) across the white matter skeleton rather than in specific tracts. Cognitive ability measured at age 11 years was not associated with older age white matter FA, except for the gspeed-independent components of several individual processing speed tests. These results indicate that quicker and more efficient information processing requires global connectivity in older age, and that associations between white matter FA and information processing speed (both individual test scores and gspeed), unlike some other aspects of later life brain structure, are generally not accounted for by cognitive ability measured in youth.
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