Single-subject cortical morphological brain networks across the adult lifespan

Age-related changes in focal cortical morphology have been well documented in previous literature; however, how interregional coordination patterns of the focal cortical morphology reorganize with advancing age is not well established. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the topological changes in single-subject morphological brain networks across the adult lifespan. Specifically, we constructed four types of single-subject morphological brain networks for 650 participants (aged from 18 to 88 years old), and characterized their topological organization using graph-based network measures. Age-related changes in the network measures were examined via linear, quadratic, and cubic models. We found profound age-related changes in global small-world attributes and efficiency, local nodal centralities, and interregional similarities of the single-subject morphological brain networks. The age-related changes were mainly embodied in cortical thickness networks, involved in frontal regions and highly connected hubs, concentrated on short-range connections, characterized by linear changes, and susceptible to connections between limbic, frontoparietal, and ventral attention networks. Intriguingly, nonlinear (i.e., quadratic or cubic) age-related changes were frequently found in the insula and limbic regions, and age-related cubic changes preferred long-range morphological connections. Finally, we demonstrated that the morphological similarity in cortical thickness between two frontal regions mediated the relationship between age and cognition measured by Cattell scores. Taken together, these findings deepen our understanding of adaptive changes of the human brain with advancing age, which may account for interindividual variations in behaviors and cognition.