Age-related assessment of diffusion parameters in specific brain tracts correlated with cortical thinning
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Age-related assessment of diffusion parameters in specific brain tracts correlated with cortical thinning Maíra Siqueira Pinto 1
&
Antonio Carlos dos Santos 2
&
Carlos Ernesto Garrido Salmon 1
Received: 10 February 2020 / Accepted: 11 August 2020 # Fondazione Società Italiana di Neurologia 2020
Abstract The aging process is associated with many brain structural alterations. These changes are not associated with neuronal loss but can be due to cortical structural changes that may be related to white matter (WM) structural alterations. In this study, we evaluated age-related changes in WM and gray matter (GM) parameters and how they correlate for specific brain tracts in a cohort of 158 healthy individuals, aged between 18 and 83 years old. In the tract-cortical analysis, cortical regions connected by tracts demonstrated similar thinning patterns for the majority of tracts. Additionally, a significant relationship was found between mean cortical thinning rate with fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) alteration rates. For all tracts, age was the main effect controlling diffusion parameter alterations. We found no direct correlations between cortical thickness and FA or MD, except for in the fornix, for which the subcallosal gyrus thickness was significantly correlated to FA and MD (p < 0.05 FDR corrected). Our findings lead to the conclusion that alterations in the WM diffusion parameters are explained by the aging process, also associated with cortical thickness changes. Also, the alteration rates of the structural parameters are correlated to the different brain tracts in the aging process. Keywords Aging . Diffusion MRI . Structural connectivity . Cortical thickness . Tractography
Introduction The brain microstructure changes during the life span. Alterations in the brain are defined in two stages: the developmental process of maturation, followed by the natural aging process of degeneration [1, 2]. The structural and functional changes in the brain can be studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. Studies on the thinning pattern of cortical regions throughout aging show that age-related cortical thickness atrophy and age-related differences in functional connectivity are Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04688-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Maíra Siqueira Pinto [email protected] 1
InBrain Lab, Department of Physics, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2
Department of Internal Medicine, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
associated [3]. Aligning with the healthy aging theories, structural and functional deterioration may relate to the complex alterations associated with aging to preserve cognitive function [3]. Cortical thinning presents itself since middle age, beginning from the third decade of
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