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Critical ages in the life course of the adult brain: nonlinear subcortical aging

2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 34; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.04.006

1558-1497

Anders M. Fjell, Lars T. Westlye, Håkon Grydeland, Inge K. Amlien, Thomas Espeseth, Ivar Reinvang, Naftali Raz, Dominic Holland, Anders M. Dale, Kristine B. Walhovd,

Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Age-related changes in brain structure result from a complex interplay between various neurobiological processes, which may contribute to more complex trajectories than can be described by simple linear or quadratic models.We used a non-parametric smoothing spline approach to delineate cross-sectionally estimated age-trajectories of the volume of 17 neuroanatomical structures in 1100 healthy adults (18-94 years).Accelerated estimated decline in advanced age characterized some structures, e.g.hippocampus, but was not the norm.For most areas, one or two critical ages were identified, characterized by changes in the estimated rate of change.One year follow up data from 142 healthy older adults (60-91 years) confirmed the existence of estimated change from the cross-sectional analyses for all areas except one (caudate).The cross-sectional and the longitudinal analyses agreed well on the rank order of age effects on specific brain structures (Spearman´s ρ = .91).The main conclusions are that most brain structures do not follow a simple path throughout adult life, and that accelerated decline in high age is not the norm of healthy brain aging.