KU Leuven -University of Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Laboratory for Neuro-& Psychophysiology, Leuven, Belgium.
Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Neuroimage Clin. 2019;22:101697. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101697. Epub 2019 Feb 5.
Aging is often associated with changes in brain structures as well as in cognitive functions. Structural changes can be visualized with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) using voxel-based grey matter morphometry (VBM) and visual rating scales to assess atrophy level. Several MRI studies have shown that possible neural correlates of cognitive changes can be seen in normal aging. It is still not fully understood how cognitive function as measured by tests and demographic factors are related to brain changes in the MRI. We recruited 55 healthy elderly subjects aged 50-79 years. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to all subjects prior to MRI scanning. Our aim was to assess correlations between age, sex, education, cognitive test performance, and the said two MRI-based measures. Our results show significant differences in VBM grey matter volume for education level (≤ 12 vs. > 12 years), with a smaller amount of grey matter volume in subjects with lower educational levels, and for age in interaction with education, indicating larger grey matter volume for young, higher educated adults. Also, grey matter volume was found to be correlated with working memory function (Digit Span Backward). Furthermore, significant positive correlations were found between visual ratings and both age and education, showing larger atrophy levels with increasing age and decreasing level of education. These findings provide supportive evidence that MRI-VBM detects structural differences for education level, and correlates with educational level and age, and working memory task performance.
衰老通常与大脑结构以及认知功能的变化有关。可以使用磁共振成像（MRI）通过体素基于灰质形态计量学（VBM）和视觉评分量表来可视化结构变化，以评估萎缩程度。多项 MRI 研究表明，正常衰老中可以看到认知变化的可能神经相关性。目前还不完全清楚测试和人口统计学因素所衡量的认知功能与 MRI 中的大脑变化有何关系。我们招募了 55 名年龄在 50-79 岁的健康老年人。所有受试者在 MRI 扫描前都进行了一系列认知测试。我们的目的是评估年龄、性别、教育程度、认知测试表现与上述两种基于 MRI 的测量值之间的相关性。我们的研究结果显示，教育程度（≤12 年 vs. >12 年）的 VBM 灰质体积存在显著差异，教育程度较低的受试者灰质体积较少，并且年龄与教育程度存在交互作用，表明年轻、受教育程度较高的成年人灰质体积较大。此外，灰质体积与工作记忆功能（数字跨度回溯）相关。此外，视觉评分与年龄和教育程度呈显著正相关，表明随着年龄的增长和教育程度的降低，萎缩程度更大。这些发现提供了支持性证据，表明 MRI-VBM 可以检测出与教育程度相关的结构差异，并与教育程度和年龄以及工作记忆任务表现相关。
