Normal age-related brain morphometric changes: nonuniformity across cortical thickness, surface area and gray matter volume?

Lemaitre, Herve; Goldman, Aaron L.; Sambataro, Fabio; Verchinski, Beth A.; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Weinberger, Daniel R.; Mattay, Venkata S.

doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.07.013

« Previous Next »Neurobiology of Aging
Volume 33, Issue 3 , Pages 617.e1-617.e9, March 2012

Normal age-related brain morphometric changes: nonuniformity across cortical thickness, surface area and gray matter volume?

Herve Lemaitre
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- U1000 Research Unit Neuroimaging and Psychiatry, INSERM-CEA-Faculté de Médecine Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
Aaron L. Goldman
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Fabio Sambataro
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Brain Center of Motor and Social Cognition, Italian Institute of Technology, Parma, Italy
Beth A. Verchinski
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
Daniel R. Weinberger
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Venkata S. Mattay
- Clinical Brain Disorder branch, Gene Cognition and Psychosis program, NIH/NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-301 435 4594; fax: +1-301 480 7795

Received 29 April 2010; received in revised form 12 July 2010; accepted 16 July 2010. published online 26 August 2010.

Abstract

Normal aging is accompanied by global as well as regional structural changes. While these age-related changes in gray matter volume have been extensively studied, less has been done using newer morphological indexes, such as cortical thickness and surface area. To this end, we analyzed structural images of 216 healthy volunteers, ranging from 18 to 87 years of age, using a surface-based automated parcellation approach. Linear regressions of age revealed a concomitant global age-related reduction in cortical thickness, surface area and volume. Cortical thickness and volume collectively confirmed the vulnerability of the prefrontal cortex, whereas in other cortical regions, such as in the parietal cortex, thickness was the only measure sensitive to the pronounced age-related atrophy. No cortical regions showed more surface area reduction than the global average. The distinction between these morphological measures may provide valuable information to dissect age-related structural changes of the brain, with each of these indexes probably reflecting specific histological changes occurring during aging.

Keywords: Aging , Magnetic resonance imaging , Morphology , Cortical thickness , Cortical volume , Cortical surface