Differential aging of cerebral white matter in middle-aged and older adults: A seven-year follow-up.

ABSTRACT: The few extant reports of longitudinal white matter (WM) changes in healthy aging, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), reveal substantial differences in change across brain regions and DTI indices. According to the "last-in-first-out" hypothesis of brain aging late-developing WM tracts may be particularly vulnerable to advanced age. To test this hypothesis we compared age-related changes in association, commissural and projection WM fiber regions using a skeletonized, region of interest DTI approach. Using linear mixed effect models, we evaluated the influences of age and vascular risk at baseline on seven-year changes in three indices of WM integrity and organization (axial diffusivity, AD, radial diffusivity, RD, and fractional anisotropy, FA) in healthy middle-aged and older adults (m

SUBMITTER: Bender AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4691398 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature