MRI age-related changes: gray and white matter measurements by voxel based morphometry in the elderly population

• Grant number: 06/04405-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2006
• End date: November 30, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Corrêa de Toledo Ferraz Alves
• Grantee: Pedro Kallas Curiati
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is a method of analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that allows comparing statistics significance between-groups difference as well as linear correlation, without prior selection of regions of interest (ROI). Up to now, the literature on brain changes connected to aging comprises quite small samples with wide age difference, what doesn´t allow the conclusion of a normal and precise brain aging pattern in elderly people. Moreover, only few studies have used automatized analysis methods as in VMB. In this project, we will investigate structural changes in the brain that comes in normal aging throughout automatized analysis voxel-a-voxel in a representative sample of hundred healthy elderly between 65 and 75 years old. The aim of this study is to determine a normal pattern in loosing or keeping gray matter that happens during aging. We will evaluate a representative sample in a restrict life period (65 to 75 years old) and correlate gray matter loss to age in a voxel-based methodology. The main hypothesis are: a) there would be gray matter reduction related to normal aging process spotted mainly in pre-frontal, parietal and temporal cortices; b) this gray matter reduction in pre-frontal, parietal and temporal cortices is more significant in elderly subjects than in adult age; c) the gray matter preservation correlated to normal aging mainly in limbic and paralimbic structures, including the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, cingulate gyrus and the para-hippocampal gyrus, would be less significant in the elderly subjects than in the youngers. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CURIATI, P. K.; TAMASHIRO-DURAN, J. H.; DURAN, F. L. S.; BUCHPIGUEL, C. A.; SQUARZONI, P.; ROMANO, D. C.; VALLADA, H.; MENEZES, P. R.; SCAZUFCA, M.; BUSATTO, G. F.; et al. Age-Related Metabolic Profiles in Cognitively Healthy Elders: Results from a Voxel-Based [F-18]Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron-Emission Tomography Study with Partial Volume Effects Correction. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NEURORADIOLOGY, v. 32, n. 3, p. 560-565, MAR 2011. (04/15336-5, 06/04405-1, 04/12694-8)

CURIATI, P. K.; TAMASHIRO, J. H.; SQUARZONI, P.; DURAN, F. L. S.; SANTOS, L. C.; WAJNGARTEN, M.; LEITE, C. C.; VALLADA, H.; MENEZES, P. R.; SCAZUFCA, M.; et al. Brain Structural Variability due to Aging and Gender in Cognitively Healthy Elders: Results from the Sao Paulo Ageing and Health Study. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NEURORADIOLOGY, v. 30, n. 10, p. 1850-1856, NOV-DEC 2009. (04/15336-5, 06/04405-1, 04/12694-8)