Cerebral White Matter Integrity and Cognitive Aging: Contributions from Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Abstract

The integrity of cerebral white matter is critical for efficient cognitive functioning, but little is known regarding the role of white matter integrity in age-related differences in cognition. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures the directional displacement of molecular water and as a result can characterize the properties of white matter that combine to restrict diffusivity in a spatially coherent manner. This review considers DTI studies of aging and their implications for understanding adult age differences in cognitive performance. Decline in white matter integrity contributes to a disconnection among distributed neural systems, with a consistent effect on perceptual speed and executive functioning. The relation between white matter integrity and cognition varies across brain regions, with some evidence suggesting that age-related effects exhibit an anterior-posterior gradient. With continued improvements in spatial resolution and integration with functional brain imaging, DTI holds considerable promise, both for theories of cognitive aging and for translational application.

The Effects of Sustained Cognitive Task Performance on Subsequent Resting State Functional Connectivity in Healthy Young and Middle-Aged Male Schoolteachers

“…In line with findings of reduced white matter integrity in old age (Madden et al, 2009;Sullivan and Pfefferbaum, 2009), it has been shown that RS FC is compromised in old age. Previous studies have shown decreased RS FC within the DMN (Andrews-Hanna et al, 2007;Damoiseaux et al, 2008;Grady et al, 2010;Koch et al, 2010;Sambataro et al, 2010), reductions in the extent of the DMN, and reduced task-induced deactivation of the DMN (e.g., AndrewsHanna et al, 2007;Sambataro et al, 2010) in older compared with young adults.…”

Literacy effects on language and vision: Emergent effects from an amodal shared resource (ASR) computational model

“…Such arguments are consistent with recent research in the field of neuroscience, into the effects of myelination in the human brain. Measures of myelination and white matter integrity have been shown to be reflected in the efficiency (Deary et al, 2006;Engel, Fries, & Singer, 2001;Li et al, 2009) and the speed (Gutiérrez, Boison, Heinemann, & Stoffel, 1995;Madden, Bennett, & Song, 2009;Penke et al, 2010;Tolhurst & Lewis, 1992;Waxman, 1980) of information processing, with such factors shown to modulate performance on a range of cognitive tasks (Deary et al, 2006;Li et al, 2009;Turken et al, 2008). Critically, myelination has been shown to be modifiable by experience (see Fields, 2008) and to increase as a result of learning (Bengtsson et al, 2005) and therefore has the potential for modulation by environmental variables such as exposure to literacy training.…”

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging for Brainnetome: A critical review

“…Recently, there have been increasing numbers of dMRI network-based studies of neuropsychiatric diseases [88] , such as MDD [4] , bipolar disorder [15] , normal aging [9] , AD [16] , schizophrenia [17] , epilepsy [18] , language disorders [89] , motor disorders [90] , and recovery of function after a stroke and other traumatic brain injuries [91,92] . From the network perspective, research on neuropsychiatric disease using dMRI can be classified into three types: specific nodebased, regional network-based and global network-based.…”

“…Brainnetome has sparked promising research and clinical applications for both developmental and neuropsychiatric conditions [2,[5][6][7][8][9] . The emerging Brainnetome era needs multidisciplinary collaboration [12] .…”

“…To date, it is the only non-invasive method for revealing the micro-geometry of nervous tissues and exploring white matter fiber connectivities in living human subjects. Increasing numbers of reports reveal altered networks of white matter microstructure (WMM) in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as MDD [4] , bipolar disorder [15] , AD [16] , schizophrenia [17] and epilepsy [18] , as well as in development [7,8] and healthy aging [9] .…”