Cortical gray matter atrophy in healthy aging cannot be explained by undetected incipient cognitive disorders: a comment on Burgmans et al. (2009).

ABSTRACT: Burgmans, van Boxtel, Vuurman, et al. (2009) published an interesting study titled "The Prevalence of Cortical Gray Matter Atrophy May Be Overestimated in the Healthy Aging Brain" on how subclinical cognitive disorders may affect correlations between age and cortical volume. Correlations between cortical gray matter volume and age were found in 30 elderly with cognitive decline after 6 years, but not in 28 elderly without cognitive decline. This study is important, and demonstrates that preclinical cognitive disorders may affect cortical brain volumes before being detectable by neuropsychological tests. However, we are not convinced by the conclusions: "... gray matter atrophy... is to a lesser extent associated with the healthy aging process, but more likely with brain processes underlyin

SUBMITTER: Fjell AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3068612 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature