Significant differences between early and late onset depression suggest different aetiological mechanisms, in accordance with a theory of "cerebrovascular" depression of late onset. Greater duration of depressive symptoms, signs and treatment does not appear to have a measurable impact on white matter signal in MRI scans.

Pronounced executive deficits are typical of the late-onset patients described in published studies, while episodic memory impairment is not specific to early-onset illness. Possible reasons and confounders are discussed.

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Executive function and processing speed appear to represent important cognitive deficits in late-life depression, which contribute to deficits in other domains, and are related to reductions in anisotropy in frontal tracts.