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White matter and memory in healthy adults: Coupled changes over two years
Andrew R Bender1, John J Prindle1, Andreas M Brandmaier2
1Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
Neuroimage
|November 8, 2015
Summary
Longitudinal brain imaging reveals that improvements in associative memory are linked to changes in white matter (WM) organization, specifically reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased radial diffusivity (RD). This highlights the importance of longitudinal studies for understanding brain-cognition relationships.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Aging Research
Background:
- Cross-sectional studies suggest links between white matter (WM) integrity and cognitive function in aging.
- Longitudinal evidence on how WM changes relate to cognitive performance over time is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between two-year changes in WM organization and cognitive performance in healthy adults.
- To examine how diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics change with cognitive performance longitudinally.
Main Methods:
- Used latent change score models (LCSM) to analyze changes in fluid intelligence and associative memory over two years in 96 healthy adults (aged 18-79 at baseline).
- Assessed WM changes using fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) in memory network regions.
- Accounted for baseline age and individual differences in change.
Main Results:
- Baseline memory performance correlated positively with FA and negatively with RD.
- Longitudinally, improvements in associative memory were significantly associated with decreases in FA and increases in RD, independent of age.
- Demonstrated sensitivity of DTI indices to brain and cognitive changes.
Conclusions:
- Longitudinal changes in white matter diffusion properties are related to cognitive performance changes.
- Findings underscore the necessity of longitudinal designs for accurate brain-cognition relationship assessments.
- Highlights the dynamic nature of brain-cognition interplay during aging.
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