Structural and Functional Imaging Correlates for Age-Related Changes in the Brain

https://doi.org/10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2006.10.002Get rights and content

In recent years, investigators have made significant progress in documenting brain structure and function as it relates to aging by using positron emission tomography, conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, advanced MR techniques, and functional MR imaging. This review summarizes the latest advances in understanding physiologic maturation and aging as detected by these neuroimaging modalities. We also present our experience with MR volumetric and positron emission tomography analysis in separate cohorts of healthy subjects in the pediatric and adult age groups respectively. Our results are consistent with previous studies and include the following: total brain volume was found to increase with age (up to 20 years of age). Whole brain metabolism and frontal lobe metabolism both decrease significantly with age (38% and 42%, respectively), whereas cerebellar metabolism does not show a significant decline with age. Defining normal alterations in brain function and structure allows early detection of disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, which are commonly associated with normal aging.

Section snippets

The Role of SPECT and PET Radioligands for Assessing Normal Aging in the Brain

Both single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and PET have been used to examine the effects of normal aging in humans. The concept of and the first instruments designed for SPECT were developed in the 1960s by Kuhl and Edwards at The University of Pennsylvania.13 This technique allowed for the acquisition and reconstruction of axial images of the brain. Initially, this technique was used primarily to study a number of neurological disorders that result in the breakdown of the

Functional Neuroimaging Findings in the Aging Adult Brain

Functional neuroimaging techniques have been used to study age-related functional and biochemical changes in the brain, including alterations in cerebral blood flow, cerebral metabolism, and neurotransmitter function.

Neuroimaging With MRI in the Developing Brain

Cortical and white matter maturational changes are first documented on fetal MRI starting after 17 weeks of gestation, when organogenesis is completed. The specific MR sequence used is based on the desired parameter to image. For example, T2-weighted contrast sequences are used to demarcate gyri, sulci, and other surface structures, whereas T1-weighted sequences are used to quantify cell density changes such as in the developing thalamus. Various sequences are used to image myelinating

Structural Neuroimaging Findings in the Aging Adult Brain

Both the use of postmortem studies and conventional MRI have shown that advancing age is associated with a decrease in whole-brain volume and an increase in CSF volume.45, 89 Quantitative analysis of a number of brain structures and neuroimaging parameters has been the subject of many investigations in the past decade and only recently has the entire brain life span development and aging been imaged in vivo and documented.7

We examined 122 subjects (72 male, 50 females, age range: 4 months to 20

The Role of Functional Imaging With MRI for Assessing Normal Aging in the Brain

Although a great number of imaging studies have investigated structural age-related changes, an impressive effort of equal magnitude has been dedicated to its functional imaging counterpart. PET imaging has become one of the most accurate and widely used methods of measuring energy metabolism and function. Early studies of brain function using PET9, 23, 39, 40, 41, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113 have laid the groundwork for significant advances in functional imaging,

Conclusion

Modern structural and functional imaging techniques have permitted the visualization of changes that are associated with normal maturation of the brain and its senescence in later years of life. In particular, exquisite details provided by MRI and the PET as well as the novel methodologies that are related to these modalities have revealed unprecedented observations about such processes in the brain structures in children and in adults. Using FDG-PET during the past 30 years and several other

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    P.C.T. was supported by NIH Grant T32 NS043126-03.

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