Rizio Avery A, Diaz Michele T
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.
Neuroreport. 2016 Jun 15;27(9):689-93. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000597.
Previous research has documented change in white matter tract integrity with increasing age. Both interhemispheric and intrahemispheric tracts that underlie language processing are susceptible to these age-related changes. The aim of the current study was to explore age and white matter integrity in language-related tracts as predictors of cognitive task performance in younger and older adults. To this end, we carried out principal component analyses of white matter tracts and confirmatory factor analysis of neuropsychological measures. We next carried out a series of regression analyses that used white matter components to predict scores on each of the neuropsychological components. For both younger and older adults, age was a significant predictor of processing speed and working memory. However, white matter integrity did not contribute independently toward these models. In older adults only, both age and a white matter component that included the bilateral frontal aslant tract and left superior longitudinal fasciculus were significant predictors of working memory. Taken together, these results extend our understanding of the contributions of language-related white matter structure to cognitive processing and highlight the effects of age-related differences in both frontal and dorsal tracts.
先前的研究已记录了白质束完整性随年龄增长的变化。构成语言处理基础的半球间和半球内束都易受这些与年龄相关的变化影响。本研究的目的是探讨与语言相关束中的年龄和白质完整性，作为年轻和年长成年人认知任务表现的预测因素。为此，我们对白质束进行了主成分分析，并对神经心理学测量进行了验证性因素分析。接下来，我们进行了一系列回归分析，使用白质成分来预测每个神经心理学成分的得分。对于年轻和年长成年人而言，年龄都是处理速度和工作记忆的显著预测因素。然而，白质完整性并未独立对这些模型产生影响。仅在年长成年人中，年龄和一个包含双侧额斜束和左侧上纵束的白质成分都是工作记忆的显著预测因素。综上所述，这些结果扩展了我们对与语言相关的白质结构对认知处理贡献的理解，并突出了额叶和背侧束中与年龄相关差异的影响。
