Brain volumetrics to investigate aging and the principal forms of degenerative cognitive decline: a brief review.

The volume of the brain and of some of its structures can provide insight into the pathological process of several diseases. For this reason, in the recent years we saw a tremendous progress in the development of automated techniques for gaining information about global and regional atrophy. This paper reviews the main methods of analysis to quantify brain volume, and their application to the study of normal aging and the principal forms of degenerative dementias.