TY - JOUR
T1 - Cognitive and physiologic correlates of subclinical structural brain disease in elderly healthy control subjects
AU - Cook, Ian A.
AU - Leuchter, Andrew F.
AU - Morgan, Melinda L.
AU - Conlee, Elise Witte
AU - David, Steven
AU - Lufkin, Robert
AU - Babaie, Ashkan
AU - Dunkin, Jennifer J.
AU - O'Hara, Ruth
AU - Simon, Sara
AU - Lightner, Amy
AU - Thomas, Susan
AU - Broumandi, David
AU - Badjatia, Neeraj
AU - Mickes, Laura
AU - Mody, Rajal K.
AU - Arora, Sanjaya
AU - Zheng, Zimu
AU - Abrams, Michelle
AU - Rosenberg-Thompson, Susan
PY - 2002/10/1
Y1 - 2002/10/1
N2 - Context: Healthy elderly persons commonly show 4 types of change in brain structure - cortical atrophy, central atrophy, deep white-matter hyperintensities, and periventricular hyperintensities - as forms of subclinical structural brain disease (SSBD). Objectives: To characterize the volumes of SSBD present with aging and to determine the associations of SSBD, physiology, and cognitive function. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: University of California, Los Angeles, Neuropsychiatric Institute. Subjects: Forty-three community-dwelling healthy control subjects, aged 60 through 93 years. Main Outcome Measures: Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological testing, and quantitative electroencephalographic coherence (functional connectivity) between brain regions. Results: Regression models demonstrated significant relationships between SSBD volumes, age, cognitive performance, and connectivity. Cortical and central atrophy and periventricular hyperintensities had significant associations with age while deep white-matter hyperintensities did not. Posterior atrophy showed stronger associations with age than did anterior atrophy. Only a subset of subjects at older ages showed large SSBD volumes; older subjects primarily showed increasing variance of SSBD. Although all subjects scored within the normal range on cognitive testing, SSBD volume was inversely related to performance, most notably on the TrailMaking Test part B and the Shipley-Hartford Abstract Reasoning test. Coherence had significant associations with SSBD. Path analysis supported mediation of the effects of deep white-matter hyperintensities and periventricular hyperintensities on cognition by altered connectivity. For several measures, cognitive performance was best explained by coherence, and only secondarily by SSBD. Conclusions: Modest volumes of SSBD were associated with decrements in cognitive performance within the normal range in healthy subjects. Lower coherence was associated with greater volumes of SSBD and increasing age. Path analysis models suggest that brain functional connectivity mediates some effects of SSBD on cognition.
AB - Context: Healthy elderly persons commonly show 4 types of change in brain structure - cortical atrophy, central atrophy, deep white-matter hyperintensities, and periventricular hyperintensities - as forms of subclinical structural brain disease (SSBD). Objectives: To characterize the volumes of SSBD present with aging and to determine the associations of SSBD, physiology, and cognitive function. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: University of California, Los Angeles, Neuropsychiatric Institute. Subjects: Forty-three community-dwelling healthy control subjects, aged 60 through 93 years. Main Outcome Measures: Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological testing, and quantitative electroencephalographic coherence (functional connectivity) between brain regions. Results: Regression models demonstrated significant relationships between SSBD volumes, age, cognitive performance, and connectivity. Cortical and central atrophy and periventricular hyperintensities had significant associations with age while deep white-matter hyperintensities did not. Posterior atrophy showed stronger associations with age than did anterior atrophy. Only a subset of subjects at older ages showed large SSBD volumes; older subjects primarily showed increasing variance of SSBD. Although all subjects scored within the normal range on cognitive testing, SSBD volume was inversely related to performance, most notably on the TrailMaking Test part B and the Shipley-Hartford Abstract Reasoning test. Coherence had significant associations with SSBD. Path analysis supported mediation of the effects of deep white-matter hyperintensities and periventricular hyperintensities on cognition by altered connectivity. For several measures, cognitive performance was best explained by coherence, and only secondarily by SSBD. Conclusions: Modest volumes of SSBD were associated with decrements in cognitive performance within the normal range in healthy subjects. Lower coherence was associated with greater volumes of SSBD and increasing age. Path analysis models suggest that brain functional connectivity mediates some effects of SSBD on cognition.
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U2 - 10.1001/archneur.59.10.1612
DO - 10.1001/archneur.59.10.1612
M3 - Article
C2 - 12374500
AN - SCOPUS:0036790761
SN - 0003-9942
VL - 59
SP - 1612
EP - 1620
JO - Archives of neurology
JF - Archives of neurology
IS - 10
ER -