Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Longitudinal Research

Longitudinal Research

Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...

Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal studies are also widely used in other medical and social science fields. For instance, in cardiovascular research, they can monitor patients' health over decades to identify risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or smoking, and evaluate the long-term effectiveness of preventive measures. Similarly, in mental health studies, researchers might follow individuals from adolescence into adulthood to understand the development and progression of conditions like...

Cross-Sectional Research

Cross-Sectional Research

In cross-sectional research, a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time. If they were interested in people's dietary habits, the researcher might directly compare different groups of people by age. Instead of following a group of people for 20 years to see how their dietary habits changed from decade to decade, the researcher would study a group of 20-year-old individuals and compare them to a group of 30-year-old individuals and a group of 40-year-old...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Organization, fine structure, and stereotaxic maps of the human Bed nucleus of the Stria terminalis.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026

Same author

A novel high-resolution test battery for language mapping in awake craniotomy: preliminary perioperative results in neurooncologic patients.

Frontiers in oncology·2026

Same author

Multimodal phenotypic classification of generalized anxiety and panic using structural MRI data and psychosocial factors: machine learning results from the German National Cohort (NAKO) study.

Translational psychiatry·2026

Same author

Prediction of cognitive test scores: a comparison of brain structure, health, demographic, and cognitive data across adulthood.

GeroScience·2026

Same author

Exploring the 3D architecture of brain tissue using digital holographic microscopy.

Biomedical optics express·2026

Same author

Cross-sectional and longitudinal functional network alterations associated with subthreshold depressive symptoms in healthy older adults.

Frontiers in aging neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Vowel acoustic parameters in speech assessment and rehabilitation of minimally verbal and speech-motor-impaired autistic children: a narrative review.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Toward clinical translation of TMS-EEG: an integrative review of multidimensional neurophysiological measures.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

Same journal

The causal efficacy of consciousness: a neuroscientific analysis and explanation.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Temporal-oscillatory entrainment: a multi-timescale framework for rhythmic coordination from neural to social frequencies.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Role of AQP4 in ameliorating heat stress-induced cellular injury in a cell line model through active heat acclimation.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Correction: Cognitive state monitoring for neuroadaptive information visualization.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 7, 2025

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Published on: June 3, 2020

Generalizing Longitudinal Age Effects on Brain Structure - A Two-Study Comparison Approach.

Christiane Jockwitz^1,2, Susan Mérillat³, Franziskus Liem³

¹Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

|May 3, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Longitudinal studies reveal stable to slight decreases in cortical thickness over time in healthy older adults. These age-related brain changes appear generalizable across independent samples when using consistent methods and similar participants.

Keywords:

aging brain structure cognition cortical thickess longitudinal change old age

More Related Videos

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

Published on: May 7, 2014

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Published on: December 18, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 7, 2025

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Published on: June 3, 2020

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

A Method for Investigating Age-related Differences in the Functional Connectivity of Cognitive Control Networks Associated with Dimensional Change Card Sort Performance

Published on: May 7, 2014

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Symmetric Bihemispheric Postmortem Brain Cutting to Study Healthy and Pathological Brain Conditions in Humans

Published on: December 18, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Aging Research
Brain Imaging

Background:

Cross-sectional studies suggest brain structure decreases with normal aging.
Longitudinal studies on age-related brain changes are rare and yield inconsistent results.
Methodological heterogeneity and inter-individual variability complicate trend identification in older adults.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare longitudinal age-related changes in brain structure (cortical thickness).
To assess generalizability of findings across two large, independent samples of healthy older adults.

Main Methods:

Compared annual percentage changes in cortical thickness.
Utilized two independent cohorts: Longitudinal Healthy Aging Brain (LHAB) and 1000BRAINS.
Controlled for baseline age, sex, education, and image quality.

Main Results:

Both samples showed stable to slight decreases in cortical thickness over time.
Differences between samples were marginal after covariate correction.
Longitudinal trends in brain structure appear consistent across independent cohorts.

Conclusions:

General trends in longitudinal brain structure changes are reproducible across independent samples.
Methodological consistency and similar sample characteristics are key for generalizability.
Findings contribute to understanding normal aging brain structure dynamics.