TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual differences in regional cortical volumes across the life span are associated with regional optical measures of arterial elasticity
AU - Chiarelli, Antonio M.
AU - Fletcher, Mark A.
AU - Tan, Chin Hong
AU - Low, Kathy A.
AU - Maclin, Edward L.
AU - Zimmerman, Benjamin
AU - Kong, Tania
AU - Gorsuch, Alexander
AU - Gratton, Gabriele
AU - Fabiani, Monica
N1 - This work was supported by NIH grant 1R56MH097973-01 to G. Gratton and M. Fabiani and by NCRR grant S10-RR029294 to G. Gratton. Correspondence should be addressed to: Monica Fabiani, University of Illinois, Beckman Institute, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. E-mail: [email protected] .
PY - 2017/11/15
Y1 - 2017/11/15
N2 - Aging is often accompanied by changes in brain anatomy and cerebrovascular health. However, the specific relationship between declines in regional cortical volumes and loss of cerebral arterial elasticity is less clear, as only global or very localized estimates of cerebrovascular health have been available. Here we employed a novel tomographic optical method (pulse-DOT) to derive local estimates of cerebral arterial elasticity and compared regional volumetric estimates (obtained with FreeSurfer) with optical arterial elasticity estimates from the same regions in 47 healthy adults (aged 18–75). Between-subject analyses revealed a global correlation between cortical volume and cortical arterial elasticity, which was a significant mediator of the association between age and cortical volume. Crucially, a novel within-subject analysis highlighted the spatial association between regional variability in cortical volumes and arterial elasticity in the same regions. This association strengthened with age. Gains in the predictability of cortical volumes from arterial elasticity data were obtained by sharpening the resolution up to individual cortical regions. These results indicate that some of the variance of sub-clinical age-related brain atrophy is associated with differences in the status of cerebral arteries, and can help explain the unique patterns of brain atrophy found within each individual.
AB - Aging is often accompanied by changes in brain anatomy and cerebrovascular health. However, the specific relationship between declines in regional cortical volumes and loss of cerebral arterial elasticity is less clear, as only global or very localized estimates of cerebrovascular health have been available. Here we employed a novel tomographic optical method (pulse-DOT) to derive local estimates of cerebral arterial elasticity and compared regional volumetric estimates (obtained with FreeSurfer) with optical arterial elasticity estimates from the same regions in 47 healthy adults (aged 18–75). Between-subject analyses revealed a global correlation between cortical volume and cortical arterial elasticity, which was a significant mediator of the association between age and cortical volume. Crucially, a novel within-subject analysis highlighted the spatial association between regional variability in cortical volumes and arterial elasticity in the same regions. This association strengthened with age. Gains in the predictability of cortical volumes from arterial elasticity data were obtained by sharpening the resolution up to individual cortical regions. These results indicate that some of the variance of sub-clinical age-related brain atrophy is associated with differences in the status of cerebral arteries, and can help explain the unique patterns of brain atrophy found within each individual.
KW - Aging
KW - Cerebrovascular health
KW - Diffuse optical tomography (DOT)
KW - FreeSurfer
KW - Optical arterial pulse measures (pulse-DOT)
KW - Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI)
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.064
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.064
M3 - Article
C2 - 28866349
AN - SCOPUS:85029079464
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 162
SP - 199
EP - 213
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
ER -