Journal
BRAIN CONNECTIVITY
Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages 146-159Publisher
MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC
DOI: 10.1089/brain.2012.0111
Keywords
aging; diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); fractional anisotropy (FA); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); structural connectivity; U-fibers
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Funding
- Human Brain Project [P20-MHDA52176, 5P01-EB001955]
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) [P41 RR013642, RR12169, RR00865]
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [R01 MH092301]
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) [K99HD065832]
- Brain Mapping Medical Research Organization
- Brain Mapping Support Foundation
- Pierson-Lovelace Foundation
- Ahmanson Foundation
- William M. and Linda R. Dietel Philanthropic Fund at the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation
- Tamkin Foundation
- Jennifer Jones-Simon Foundation
- Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation
- Robson Family and Northstar Fund
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Structural and diffusion imaging studies demonstrate effects of age, sex, and asymmetry in many brain structures. However, few studies have addressed how individual differences might influence the structural integrity of the superficial white matter (SWM), comprised of short-range association (U-fibers), and intracortical axons. This study thus applied a sophisticated computational analysis approach to structural and diffusion imaging data obtained from healthy individuals selected from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) database across a wide adult age range (n = 65, age: 18-74 years, all Caucasian). Fractional anisotropy (FA), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD) were sampled and compared at thousands of spatially matched SWM locations and within regions-of-interest to examine global and local variations in SWM integrity across age, sex, and hemisphere. Results showed age-related reductions in FA that were more pronounced in the frontal SWM than in the posterior and ventral brain regions, whereas increases in RD and AD were observed across large areas of the SWM. FA was significantly greater in left temporoparietal regions in men and in the posterior callosum in women. Prominent leftward FA and rightward AD and RD asymmetries were observed in the temporal, parietal, and frontal regions. Results extend previous findings restricted to the deep white matter pathways to demonstrate regional changes in the SWM microstructure relating to processes of demyelination and/or to the number, coherence, or integrity of axons with increasing age. SWM fiber organization/coherence appears greater in the left hemisphere regions spanning language and other networks, while more localized sex effects could possibly reflect sex-specific advantages in information strategies.
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