A common brain network links development, aging, and vulnerability to disease.

ABSTRACT: Several theories link processes of development and aging in humans. In neuroscience, one model posits for instance that healthy age-related brain degeneration mirrors development, with the areas of the brain thought to develop later also degenerating earlier. However, intrinsic evidence for such a link between healthy aging and development in brain structure remains elusive. Here, we show that a data-driven analysis of brain structural variation across 484 healthy participants (8-85 y) reveals a largely--but not only--transmodal network whose lifespan pattern of age-related change intrinsically supports this model of mirroring development and aging. We further demonstrate that this network of brain regions, which develops relatively late during adolescence and shows accelerated degeneratio

SUBMITTER: Douaud G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4267352 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature