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Brain atrophy can introduce age-related differences in BOLD response.
Xueqing Liu1, Raphael T Gerraty2, Jack Grinband3
1Biomedical Engineering Department, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States.
Human Brain Mapping
|April 12, 2017
Summary
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in aging may show false age-related differences due to brain atrophy. Analyzing data in native space eliminates these artifacts, clarifying hemodynamic response function (HRF) findings.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Gerontology
- Physiological measurements
Background:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on aging face challenges interpreting age-related hemodynamic changes.
- Existing research on age-related hemodynamic alterations lacks consensus on their existence and origins.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of age-related brain atrophy on blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response amplitude in fMRI.
- To determine if standard spatial normalization procedures introduce spurious age-related differences in the hemodynamic impulse response function (HRF).
Main Methods:
- An event-related fMRI experiment using visual and auditory stimuli was conducted.
- Data were analyzed both in standard space (after spatial normalization) and in native space to assess the effect of brain atrophy.
- Simulations of fMRI data were performed using age-related morphological differences to isolate the impact of spatial processing.
Main Results:
- A significant age-related difference in auditory stimulus response amplitude was initially detected.
- This observed difference disappeared when fMRI data were processed in subjects' native space, bypassing spatial normalization.
- Simulated data analysis confirmed that standard processing introduces HRF amplitude differences attributed to age-related atrophy.
Conclusions:
- Age-related brain atrophy can cause inaccuracies in spatial co-registration, leading to apparent age-related attenuation in BOLD response amplitude.
- The findings suggest that processing fMRI data in native space is crucial for accurate interpretation of age-related hemodynamic alterations.
- This study provides a potential explanation for conflicting results in previous fMRI research on aging.
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