Effects of age on volumes of cortex, white matter and subcortical structures

Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Oct;26(9):1261-70; discussion 1275-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2005.05.020.

Abstract

The effect of age was investigated in and compared across 16 automatically segmented brain measures: cortical gray matter, cerebral white matter, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, the accumbens area, caudate, putamen, pallidum, brainstem, cerebellar cortex, cerebellar white matter, the lateral ventricle, the inferior lateral ventricle, and the 3rd and 4th ventricle. Significant age effects were found for all volumes except pallidum and the 4th ventricle. Heterogeneous age responses were seen in that age relationships for cortex, amygdala, thalamus, the accumbens area, and caudate were linear, while cerebral white matter, hippocampus, brainstem, cerebellar white, and gray matter, as well as volume of the lateral, inferior lateral, and 3rd ventricles showed curvilinear relationships with age. In general, the findings point to global and large effects of age across brain volumes.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Aging / pathology*
  • Aging / physiology
  • Brain Mapping
  • Cerebral Cortex / pathology*
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiology
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality / physiology
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Lateral Ventricles
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neural Pathways
  • Regression Analysis
  • Statistics, Nonparametric