Rasooli Amirhossein, Adab Hamed Zivari, Van Ruitenbeek Peter, Weerasekera Akila, Chalavi Sima, Cuypers Koen, Levin Oron, Dhollander Thijs, Peeters Ronald, Sunaert Stefan, Mantini Dante, Swinnen Stephan P
Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group, Group Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
iScience. 2023 May 3;26(6):106794. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106794. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.
Aging is associated with changes in the central nervous system and leads to reduced life quality. Here, we investigated the age-related differences in the CNS underlying motor performance deficits using magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion MRI. MRS measured N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), and creatine (Cr) concentrations in the sensorimotor and occipital cortex, whereas dMRI quantified apparent fiber density (FD) in the same voxels to evaluate white matter microstructural organization. We found that aging was associated with increased reaction time and reduced FD and NAA concentration in the sensorimotor voxel. Both FD and NAA mediated the association between age and reaction time. The NAA concentration was found to mediate the association between age and FD in the sensorimotor voxel. We propose that the age-related decrease in NAA concentration may result in reduced axonal fiber density in the sensorimotor cortex which may ultimately account for the response slowness of older participants.
衰老与中枢神经系统的变化相关，并导致生活质量下降。在此，我们使用磁共振波谱和扩散磁共振成像研究了运动表现缺陷背后的中枢神经系统中与年龄相关的差异。磁共振波谱测量了感觉运动皮层和枕叶皮层中N-乙酰天门冬氨酸（NAA）、胆碱（Cho）和肌酸（Cr）的浓度，而扩散磁共振成像则对相同体素中的表观纤维密度（FD）进行量化，以评估白质微观结构组织。我们发现，衰老与反应时间增加以及感觉运动体素中FD和NAA浓度降低有关。FD和NAA均介导了年龄与反应时间之间的关联。发现NAA浓度介导了感觉运动体素中年龄与FD之间的关联。我们提出，与年龄相关的NAA浓度降低可能导致感觉运动皮层中轴突纤维密度降低，这最终可能是老年参与者反应迟缓的原因。
