Diffusion tensor imaging of cerebral white matter integrity in cognitive aging

Madden, David J.; Bennett, Ilana J.; Burzyńska, Agnieszka; Potter, Guy G.; Chen, Nan‐kuei; Song, Allen W.

doi:10.1016/j.bbadis.2011.08.003

Cited by 402 publications

(411 citation statements)

References 202 publications

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“…In contrast, cortical thickness of older meditators was comparable to that of younger meditators. In a study on differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white matter integrity (Madden et al 2012;Madden et al 2009), Luders et al (2011) reported that the agerelated FA decrease was less pronounced in meditators than in controls. These cross-sectional studies provide a first indication that MM might protect against cognitive decline.…”

Section: Meditation Ageing and Cognitive Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve

Malinowski

Shalamanova

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

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Mindfulness-related meditation practices engage various cognitive skills including the ability to focus and sustain attention, which in itself requires several interacting attentional subfunctions. There is increasing behavioural and neuroscientific evidence that mindfulness meditation improves these functions and associated neural processes. More so than other cognitive training programmes, the effects of meditation appear to generalise to other cognitive tasks, thus demonstrating far transfer effects. As these attentional functions have been linked to age-related cognitive decline, there is growing interest in the question whether meditation can slowdown or even prevent such decline. The cognitive reserve hypothesis builds on evidence that various lifestyle factors can lead to better cognitive performance in older age than would be predicted by the existing degree of brain pathology. We argue that mindfulness meditation, as a combination of brain network and brain state training, may increase cognitive reserve capacity and may mitigate age-related declines in cognitive functions. We consider available direct and indirect evidence from the perspective of cognitive reserve theory. The limited available evidence suggests that MM may enhance cognitive reserve capacity directly through the repeated activation of attentional functions and of the multiple demand system and indirectly through the improvement of physiological mechanisms associated with stress and immune function. The article concludes with outlining research strategies for addressing underlying empirical questions in more substantial ways.

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Section: Meditation Ageing and Cognitive Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve

Malinowski

Shalamanova

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

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“…FA and cognitive function relationships have been studied mainly in adults and older children (3,33), and some studies find lower RD in association with better cognition as an index of myelination (4,5). However, few studies have reported relationships between AD and cognition (1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Common and heritable components of white matter microstructure predict cognitive function at 1 and 2 y

Lee

Steiner

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Previous studies indicate that the microstructure of individual white matter (WM) tracts is related to cognitive function. More recent studies indicate that the microstructure of individual tracts is highly correlated and that a property common across WM is related to overall cognitive function in adults. However, little is known about whether these common WM properties exist in early childhood development or how they are related to cognitive development. In this study, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate common underlying factors in 12 fiber tracts, their relationship with cognitive function, and their heritability in a longitudinal sample of healthy children at birth (n = 535), 1 y (n = 322), and 2 y (n = 244) of age. Our data show that, in neonates, there is a highly significant correlation between major WM tracts that decreases from birth to 2 y of age. Over the same period, the factor structure increases in complexity, from one factor at birth to three factors at age 2 y, which explain 50% of variance. The identified common factors of DTI metrics in each age group are significantly correlated with general cognitive scores and predict cognitive ability in later childhood. These factors are moderately heritable. These findings illustrate the anatomical differentiation of WM fiber from birth to 2 y of age that correlate with cognitive development. Our results also suggest that the common factor approach is an informative way to study WM development and its relationship with cognition and is a useful approach for future imaging genetic studies.factor analysis | white matter | DTI | cognition | heritability I ndividual differences in white matter (WM) microstructure have been shown to be related to cognitive functions in adults (1, 2) and children (3-5). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters in different WM regions or tracts are variably associated with processing speed, general intelligence, and higher-order cognitive abilities (1-5).To date, the majority of DTI studies of WM microstructure have analyzed each tract or WM region independently. However, more recent studies clearly demonstrate that fractional anisotropy (FA) and other DTI metrics of WM microstructure correlate highly across WM tracts and across a wide age range, including neonates, older children, and adults (6-8). Furthermore, studies indicate that a general factor derived by principal component analyses (PCA) describing common variance in FA across WM tracts is associated with information processing speed (9) as well as general intelligence (10), at least in older adults. In children ages 8 to 16 y, three principal components of FA have been identified; the one corresponding to the corpus callosum was significantly related to IQ (11).The identification of one or more common WM factors that influence variation in multiple WM tracts or regions is important for several reasons. Such factors could prove to be a good target for imaging genetic studies, as one would expect genetic variants influencing WM development and function ...

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“…While low AD in the mouse model described above (Song et al, 2002) was associated with axonal injury, AD correlated positively with IIV. Studies have shown AD increases in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (Agosta et al, 2011;Madden et al, 2011). Positive relationships between AD and IIV explain why FA was less strongly related to IIV than MD or RD.…”

Section: Effects Of Cognitive Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced White Matter Integrity Is Related to Cognitive Instability

Fjell

Westlye²,

Amlien³

et al. 2011

J. Neurosci.

122

106

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Increased performance variability has been demonstrated in several groups and conditions, including aging and cognitive decline. Structural brain characteristics underlying this phenomenon have so far been elusive. However, there is reason to expect that disconnectivity in associative pathways, whether caused by immature or degraded white matter (WM) tracts, will increase performance variability by neural noise. The aim of this study was to test whether the quality of WM, measured by diffusion tensor imaging, is related to performance variability in healthy adults. Intraindividual standard deviation of the reaction time (sdRT) across trials and median reaction time (mRT) from 270 participants were obtained from a speeded continuous performance task (Eriksen flanker task) with two conditions (congruent, incongruent). Tract-based spatial statistics was used to test the relationship with diffusion characteristics [fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusion (MD), radial diffusion (RD), axial diffusion (AD)]. Robust relationships between sdRT and all diffusion measures were found in most WM areas, independently of mRT, age, and sex. The effects were anatomically more widespread in the congruent than the incongruent condition, covering almost 50% of the voxels for RD and MD, and Ͼ25% of the voxels for FA and AD. Partial betas were in the range 0.45-0.55, and the strength of the relationships increased significantly with age. For mRT, the effects were smaller and unstable across condition. We concluded that performance variability is a likely consequence of individual differences in WM integrity, and that it is a promising behavioral correlate of individual differences in WM microstructure.

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Diffusion tensor imaging of cerebral white matter integrity in cognitive aging

Cited by 402 publications

References 202 publications

Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve

Meditation and Cognitive Ageing: the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in Building Cognitive Reserve

Common and heritable components of white matter microstructure predict cognitive function at 1 and 2 y

Reduced White Matter Integrity Is Related to Cognitive Instability

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