A comparison of white matter microstructure and correlates with neuropsychological measures in younger and older
Abu-Bakar Sheriff1, Vanessa Scarapicchia2,3, Erin L Mazerolle4
1Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Objective:
With a globally aging population, there is a need to better understand how brain structure relates to function in healthy older and younger adults.
Methods:
34 healthy participants divided into older (17; Mean = 70.9, SD = 5.4) and younger adults (17; Mean = 28.1, SD = 2.8) underwent diffusion-weighted imaging and neuropsychological assessment, including the California Verbal Learning Test 2nd Edition and the Trail Making Test (TMT-A and TMT-B). Differences in white matter microstructure for older and younger adults and the association between DTI metrics (fractional anisotropy, FA; mean diffusivity, MD) and cognitive performance were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (p < 0.05, corrected).
Results:
Older adults had significantly lower FA and higher MD than younger adults in widespread brain regions. There was a significant negative correlation between executive function (TMT-B) and MD for older adults in the right superior/anterior corona radiata and the corpus callosum. No significant relationship was detected between DTI metrics and executive function in younger adults or with memory performance in either group.
Conclusions:
The findings underscore the need to examine brain-behaviour relationships as a function of age. Future studies should include comprehensive assessments in larger lifespan samples to better understand the aging brain.
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