Gray matter asymmetries in aging and neurodegeneration: A review and meta‐analysis

Minkova, Lora; Habich, Annegret; Peter, Jessica; Kaller, Christoph P.; Eickhoff, Simon B.; Klöppel, Stefan

doi:10.1002/hbm.23772

Cited by 145 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 85 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…Several studies demonstrate a reduction of gray matter volume during aging [78][79][80][81][82][83][84] . More specifically, the volume of gray matter in the cortex and the cerebellum of older individuals is 18% and 13% smaller, respectively, than those of their younger counterparts 81 .…”

Section: Brain Modifications During Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Omega-3 PUFA metabolism and brain modifications during aging

Chappus-McCendie

Chevalier

Roberge

et al. 2019

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

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In Canada, 5.5 million (16% of Canadians) adults are >65 years old and projections suggest this number will be approximately 20% of Canadians by 2024. A major concern regarding old age is a decline in health, especially if this entails a loss of self-sufficiency and independence caused by a decline in cognition. The brain contains 60% of fat and is one of the most concentrated organs in long chain omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). During aging, there are physiological modifications in the metabolism of lipids that could also have consequences on brain structure and levels of DHA. This review will hence discuss the physiological modifications in the metabolism of lipids during aging with a focus on long chain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and also outline the structural and functional modifications of the brain during aging including brain lipid modifications and its relation to higher levels of DHA and cognition. Therefore, in this review, we outline the importance of collecting more data on the biology of aging since it might highly improve our understanding about what are «normal» modifications occurring during aging and what can become pathological.

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Section: Brain Modifications During Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Omega-3 PUFA metabolism and brain modifications during aging

Chappus-McCendie

Chevalier

Roberge

et al. 2019

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

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“…Thus, hypothesized changes in asymmetry across healthy adult life may be evident to a greater extent in AD. Although cross-sectional findings are somewhat conflicting 19,28,29 and metaanalyses report scant evidence for increased LH vulnerability in AD 30 , early longitudinal findings indicate that disease progression may be associated with faster LH degeneration in medial and prefrontal cortex 31 . Further, recent evidence hints that system-wide loss of existing asymmetries may be part of the AD phenotype 20 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric thinning of the cerebral cortex across the adult lifespan is accelerated in Alzheimer’s Disease

Roe

Vidal-Piñeiro

Sørensen

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Normal aging and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) are accompanied by large-scale alterations in brain organization that undermine brain function. Although hemispheric asymmetry is a global organizing feature of cortex thought to promote brain efficiency, current descriptions of cortical thinning in aging and AD have largely overlooked cortical asymmetry. Consequently, the foundational question of whether and where the cerebral hemispheres change at different rates in aging and AD remains open. First, applying vertex-wise data-driven clustering in a longitudinal discovery sample (aged 20-89; 2577 observations; 1851 longitudinal) we identified cortical regions exhibiting similar age-trajectories of asymmetry across the adult lifespan. Next, we sought replication in 4 independent longitudinal aging cohorts. We show that higher-order regions of cortex that exhibit pronounced asymmetry at age ~20 also show asymmetry change in aging. Results revealed that both leftward and rightward asymmetry is progressively lost on a similar time-scale across adult life. Hence, faster thinning of the (previously) thicker homotopic hemisphere is a feature of aging. This simple organizational principle showed high consistency across multiple aging cohorts in the Lifebrain consortium, and both the topological patterns and temporal dynamics of asymmetry-loss were markedly similar across replicating samples. Finally, we show that regions exhibiting gradual asymmetry-loss over healthy adult life exhibit faster asymmetry-change in AD.Overall, our results suggest a system-wide breakdown in the adaptive asymmetric organization of cortex across adult life which is further accelerated in AD, and may implicate thickness asymmetry as a viable marker for declining hemispheric specialization in aging and AD. The brain becomes progressively disorganized with age, and brain alterations accelerated in Alzheimer's disease may occur gradually over the lifespan. Although hemispheric asymmetry aids efficient network organization, efforts to identify structural markers of age-related decline have largely overlooked cortical asymmetry. Here we show the hemisphere that is thicker when younger, thins faster. This leads to progressive system-wide loss of regional thickness asymmetry across life. In multiple aging cohorts, asymmetry-loss showed high reproducibility topologically across cortex and similar timing-of-change in aging. Asymmetry-change was further accelerated in AD. Our findings uncover a new principle of brain aging -thicker homotopic cortex thins faster -and suggest we may have unveiled a structural marker for a widely-hypothesized decline in hemispheric specialization in aging and AD.

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“…Consistent with the aforementioned models of obesity and weight gain, structural neuroimaging studies show that body mass index is associated with decreased volume of the prefrontal cortex across the lifespan. Moreover, body mass index associated atrophy is specific to cortical gray matter 30 , 31 . These results also are consistent with human and animal studies that have reported an association between obesity and lower performance on test of executive functioning and memory 32 , cognitive processes associated with the integrity of the prefrontal cortex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex is associated with greater body mass index: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

Chen

Murray

Giovannetti

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies have not found a clear relationship between the orbitofrontal cortex and obesity, despite animal and human studies suggesting the contrary. Our primary meta-analysis examined what regions are associated with reduced gray matter volume, given increased body mass index. We identified 23 voxel-based morphometry studies examining the association between gray matter volume and body mass index. In a sample of 6,788 participants, we found that greater body mass index is associated with decreased gray matter volume in the right Brodmanns’ area 10 and 11, forming part of the right orbitofrontal cortex (FWE, p=0.05). Use of Brodmanns’ areas 10 and 11 as seeds in a Neurosynth network coactivation and text decoding analysis revealed that these regions are associated with studies of emotional regulation and processing, clinical symptoms and disorder, ‘mentalizing’ and social cognition, and the Default mode network. Our finding uniquely contributes to the literature in showing a relationship between the orbitofrontal cortex and obesity and showing the wide-ranging impact these differences may have on social, mental, and emotional functioning as well as on the Default mode network. Exploratory analyses suggest the need for studies examining the effect of age on these findings.

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Gray matter asymmetries in aging and neurodegeneration: A review and meta‐analysis

Cited by 145 publications

References 85 publications

Omega-3 PUFA metabolism and brain modifications during aging

Omega-3 PUFA metabolism and brain modifications during aging

Asymmetric thinning of the cerebral cortex across the adult lifespan is accelerated in Alzheimer’s Disease

Reduced gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex is associated with greater body mass index: a coordinate-based meta-analysis

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