Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V2, Canada.
Brain Struct Funct. 2011 Nov;216(4):417-31. doi: 10.1007/s00429-011-0321-1. Epub 2011 May 11.
Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies confirmed the vulnerability of frontal callosal fibers to normal aging. The present study extended this examination systematically to other prefrontal white matter regions. Structural magnetic resonance imaging and DTI datasets were acquired from 69 healthy subjects aged 22-84 years. The prefrontal white matter was parcellated into several anatomical sub-regions: medial and lateral orbitofrontal white matter, dorsolateral prefrontal white matter, and medial prefrontal white matter, using reliable DTI-tractography protocols. Tract-specific characteristics were calculated using Matlab. Regression models were used to determine the relationship between age and structural integrity of white matter tracts. The results of our study demonstrate regional age-related changes in the prefrontal white matter tracts of the human brain. This study was cross-sectional and therefore additional longitudinal studies are needed to confirm our findings.
先前的弥散张量成像（DTI）研究证实了额皮质连合纤维在正常衰老过程中的脆弱性。本研究系统地将这一检查扩展到了其他前额叶白质区域。结构磁共振成像和 DTI 数据集来自 69 名年龄在 22-84 岁的健康受试者。使用可靠的 DTI 追踪协议，将前额叶白质分割成几个解剖亚区：内侧和外侧眶额白质、背外侧前额叶白质和内侧前额叶白质。使用 Matlab 计算束特异性特征。回归模型用于确定年龄与白质束结构完整性之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，人类大脑前额叶白质束存在与年龄相关的区域性变化。本研究为横断面研究，因此需要进一步的纵向研究来证实我们的发现。
