ArticleNeurobiology of aging2018
Re-examining age-related differences in white matter microstructure with free-water corrected diffusion tensor imaging.
Article in Neurobiology of aging, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 120 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of aerobic exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness on white matter free water fraction in older adults: a 1-year randomized controlled trial.GeroScience · 2026Trial
- Free water: A marker of age-related modifications of the cingulum white matter and its association with cognitive decline.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Differential cerebral white matter tract alterations in generalized anxiety disorder revealed by ultra-high-field 7 T diffusion-weighted imaging.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- The Association Between Changes in White Matter Microstructure and Cognitive Function in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Biophysical Diffusion MRI Models Better Identify White Matter Tracts in Edema.Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.) · 2026Article
- Major Lifetime Discrimination Exposure Accelerates Brain Microstructural Aging: Diffusion MRI Evidence From MIDUS.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2026Article
- Factor analysis of multimodal MRI, biofluid, and vascular biomarkers reveals latent constructs of brain health.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Reproducibility and Reliability of Free-Water-Corrected Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Brain: Revisited.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Associations of cardiorespiratory fitness with brain white matter microstructural integrity and white matter hyperintensity volume across the adult lifespan.GeroScience · 2026Article
- White and gray matter diffusion-derived differences in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a free-water-corrected diffusion MRI study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Glymphatic dysfunction as an imaging biomarker for cognitive impairment in patients with β-thalassemia major: A multimodal MRI study.European journal of radiology open · 2025Article
- Associations of Central Arterial Stiffness With Brain White Matter Integrity and Gray Matter Volume in MRI Across the Adult Lifespan.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2025Article
- Reduced myelin contributes to cognitive impairment in patients with monogenic small vessel disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Transcallosal white matter and cortical gray matter variations in autistic adults aged 30-73 years.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Metabolite TMagnetic resonance in medicine · 2025Article
- Associations of ischemic heart disease with brain glymphatic MRI indices and risk of Alzheimer's disease.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Free Water as a Marker of Early Small Vessel Disease in Healthy Aging.European journal of neurology · 2025Article
- A comparison of diffusion tensor imaging tractography approaches to identify the Frontal Aslant Tract in neurosurgical patients.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Healthy dietary intake diminishes the effect of cerebral small vessel disease on cognitive performance in older adults.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Sex and APOE ε4 allele differences in longitudinal white matter microstructure in multiple cohorts of aging and Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been used extensively to investigate white matter (WM) microstructural changes during healthy adult aging. However, WM fibers are known to shrink throughout the lifespan, leading to larger interstitial spaces with age. This could allow more extracellular free water molecules to bias DTI metrics, which are relied upon to provide WM microstructural information. Using a cohort of 212 participants, we demonstrate that WM microstructural changes in aging are potentially less pronounced than previously reported once the free water compartment is eliminated. After free water elimination, DTI parameters show age-related differences that match histological evidence of myelin degradation and debris accumulation. The fraction of free water is further shown to associate better with age than any of the conventional DTI parameters. Our findings suggest that DTI analyses involving free water are likely to yield novel insight into retrospective re-analysis of data and to answer new questions in ongoing DTI studies of brain aging.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.