School of Design, Communication & I.T., the University of Newcastle, and Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
Neuroimage. 2010 May 15;51(1):19-27. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.02.016. Epub 2010 Feb 13.
A large number of structural brain studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have reported age-related cortical changes and sex difference in brain morphology. Most studies have focused on cortical thickness or density, with relatively few studies of cortical sulcal features, especially in the elderly. In this paper, we report global sulcal indices (g-SIs) of both cerebral hemispheres and the average sulcal span in six prominent sulci, as observed in T1-weighted scans obtained from a large community cohort of 319 non-demented individuals aged between 70 and 90 years (mean=78.06+/-4.75; male/female=149/170), using automated methods. Our results showed that for both hemispheres, g-SIs had significant negative correlations with age in both men and women. Using an interactive effect analysis, we found that g-SIs for men declined faster with age than that for women. The widths of all six sulcal spans increased significantly with age, with largest span increase occurring in the superior frontal sulcus. Compared to women, men had significantly wider sulcal spans for all sulci that were examined. Our findings suggest that both age and sex contribute to significant cortical gyrification differences and variations in the elderly. This study establishes a reference for future studies of age-related brain changes and neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly.
大量使用磁共振成像（MRI）的结构脑研究报告了与年龄相关的皮质变化和大脑形态的性别差异。大多数研究都集中在皮质厚度或密度上，而对皮质脑沟特征的研究相对较少，尤其是在老年人中。在本文中，我们报告了从一个由 319 名年龄在 70 至 90 岁之间（平均=78.06+/-4.75；男/女=149/170）的非痴呆个体的大型社区队列的 T1 加权扫描中观察到的双侧半球的全局脑沟指数（g-SI）和六个突出脑沟的平均脑沟跨度，使用自动方法。我们的结果表明，对于两个半球，男性和女性的 g-SI 均与年龄呈显著负相关。使用交互效应分析，我们发现男性的 g-SI 随年龄的下降速度快于女性。所有六个脑沟跨度的宽度都随着年龄的增长而显著增加，其中额上沟的增加幅度最大。与女性相比，男性所有被检查脑沟的脑沟跨度都明显更宽。我们的研究结果表明，年龄和性别都导致了老年人皮质脑回差异和变化的显著差异。本研究为老年人与年龄相关的大脑变化和神经退行性疾病的未来研究奠定了基础。
