Vascular and degenerative processes differentially affect regional interhemispheric connections in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Despite the critical importance of the corpus callosum (CC) to the connection between brain hemispheres, little is known about the independent contribution of degenerative and vascular processes to regional changes in the microstructural integrity of the CC. Here, we examine these changes in subjects with mild cognitive impairment, with Alzheimer disease, and in cognitively normal elderly adults.

Methods

We used 3-dimensional brain MRI with diffusion tensor imaging in 47 Alzheimer disease, 77 mild cognitive impairment, and 107 cognitively normal subjects, and we calculated mean fractional anisotropy (FA) values for 4 CC regions corresponding to 4 homologous regions of cortical gray matter (GM). To assess vascular and degenerative processes, we also mea

SUBMITTER: Lee DY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2922914 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature