Hulst Thomas, van der Geest Jos N, Thürling M, Goericke S, Frens Maarten A, Timmann Dagmar, Donchin Opher
Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Erasmus University College, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Neuroimage. 2015 Aug 1;116:196-206. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.03.084. Epub 2015 Apr 18.
Ageing generally leads to impairments in cognitive function and the ability to execute and learn new movements. While the causes of these impairments are often multi-factorial, integrity of the cerebellum in an elderly population is an important predictive factor of both motor function and cognitive function. A similar association between cerebellar integrity and function is true for cerebellar patients. We set out to investigate the analogies between the pattern of cerebellar degeneration of a healthy ageing population and cerebellar patients. We quantified cerebellar regional volumes by applying voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to a publicly available dataset of MR images obtained in 313 healthy subjects aged between 18 and 96 years and a dataset of MR images of 21 cerebellar patients. We observed considerable overlap in regions with the strongest loss of cerebellar volume in the two datasets. In both datasets, the anterior lobe of the cerebellum (lobules I-V) and parts of the superior cerebellum (primarily lobule VI) showed the strongest degeneration of cerebellar volume. However, the most significant voxels in cerebellar patients were shifted posteriorly (lobule VII) compared to the voxels that degenerate most with age in the healthy population. The results showed a pattern of significant degeneration of the posterior motor region (lobule VIIIb) in both groups, and significant degeneration of lobule IX and X in the healthy population, but not in cerebellar patients. Furthermore, we saw strong volumetric degeneration of functionally defined cerebellar regions associated with cerebral somatomotor function in both groups. Predominance of degeneration in the anterior lobe and lobule VI suggests impairment of motor function in both groups, while we suggest that the posterior shift of degeneration in cerebellar patients would be associated with relatively stronger impairment of higher motor function and cognitive function. Thus, these results may explain the specific symptomology associated with cerebellar degeneration in ageing and in cerebellar patients.
衰老通常会导致认知功能以及执行和学习新动作能力的受损。虽然这些损伤的原因往往是多因素的，但老年人群中小脑的完整性是运动功能和认知功能的重要预测因素。对于小脑疾病患者，小脑完整性与功能之间也存在类似的关联。我们着手研究健康老年人群和小脑疾病患者小脑退化模式之间的相似之处。我们通过基于体素的形态学测量（VBM），对313名年龄在18至96岁之间的健康受试者的公开可用磁共振图像数据集以及21名小脑疾病患者的磁共振图像数据集进行分析，以量化小脑区域体积。我们观察到两个数据集中小脑体积损失最严重的区域有相当大的重叠。在两个数据集中，小脑的前叶（小叶I - V）和小脑上部的部分区域（主要是小叶VI）显示出最严重的小脑体积退化。然而，与健康人群中随年龄退化最严重的体素相比，小脑疾病患者中最显著的体素向后移位（小叶VII）。结果显示，两组中后运动区（小叶VIIIb）均有显著退化，健康人群中小叶IX和X有显著退化，而小脑疾病患者中则没有。此外，我们还发现两组中与大脑躯体运动功能相关的功能性定义小脑区域均有明显的体积退化。前叶和小叶VI退化占主导表明两组的运动功能均受损，而我们认为小脑疾病患者退化的向后移位与较高运动功能和认知功能相对更强的受损有关。因此，这些结果可能解释了衰老和小脑疾病患者中与小脑退化相关的特定症状。
