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Regional fMRI brain activation does correlate with global brain volume
Amy Brodtmann1, Aina Puce, David Darby
1National Stroke Research Institute, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Australia. amyb@alphalink.com.au
Brain Research
|January 10, 2009
Summary
Brain atrophy in older adults correlates with reduced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation. Decreased brain volume, particularly total brain volume, showed a strong link to lower fMRI signal changes and activation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Gerontology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Global brain atrophy is common in aging.
- Previous studies found weak links between brain atrophy and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation in healthy elderly individuals.
- Understanding this relationship is crucial for interpreting brain function changes with age.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between global brain atrophy and regional fMRI activation in healthy adults across a wide age range.
- To determine if measures of brain volume correlate with fMRI activation metrics.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a passive viewing task to assess fMRI activation in striate and ventral extrastriate cortices.
- Measured fMRI activated voxel counts and mean percent MR signal change in 24 healthy participants (age 33-89).
- Correlated fMRI data with three brain atrophy measures: percent brain volume, normalized brain volume, and grey matter volume.
Main Results:
- A strong positive correlation (r>0.90) was observed between regional activation volume and decreasing total brain volume when data were averaged by decade.
- Percent brain volume showed a particularly strong correlation with activation volume.
- A strong negative correlation was found between mean percent MR signal change and brain volume measures.
Conclusions:
- Global brain atrophy, specifically decreasing total brain volume, is strongly associated with reduced regional fMRI activation in healthy aging.
- Individual variability in brain volume and activation complicates within-subject analyses.
- These findings highlight the impact of age-related brain volume changes on functional brain imaging measures.
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