A voxel-based morphometric study of age- and sex-related changes in white matter volume in the normal aging brain

作者：Zuojun Geng, Haijing Liu, Lixin Wang, Qingfeng Zhu, Zhen‐Hu Song, Ruiting Chang, Huan‐Di Lv · 发表于：Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.2147/ndt.s90674 · 被引用次数：63 · 研究领域：Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research、Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Functional Brain Connectivity Studies

OBJECTIVE: To carry out a cross-sectional study of 187 cognitively normal Chinese adults using the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approach to delineate age-related changes in the white matter volume of regions of interest in the brain and further analyze their correlation with age. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 187 cognitively normal adults were divided into the young, middle, and old age-groups. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging was performed with the Achieva 3.0 T system. Structural images were processed using VBM8 and statistical parametric mapping 8. Regions of interest were obtained by WFU PickAtlas, and all realigned images were spatially normalized. RESULTS: Females showed significantly greater total white matter volume than males (t=2.36, P=0.0096, false-discovery rate [FDR] corrected). VBM demonstrated statistically significant age-related differences in white matter volume between the young age-group and the middle age-group (P<0.05, FDR corrected) and between the middle age-group and the old age-group (P<0.05, FDR corrected). No interaction was found between age and sex on white matter volume (P<0.05, FDR corrected). Logistic regression analysis revealed nonlinear correlation between total white matter volume and age (R (2)=0.124, P<0.001). White matter volume gradually increased before 40 years of age, peaked around 50 years of age, and rapidly declined after 60 years of age. CONCLUSION: Significant age-related differences are present in white matter volu...