ArticleHuman brain mapping2020
Changes in white matter fiber density and morphology across the adult lifespan: A cross-sectional fixel-based analysis.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tidying up white matter: Neuroplastic transformations in sensorimotor tracts following slackline skill acquisition.Human brain mapping · 2024Trial
- Thalamocortical white matter microstructure and cognition following mild traumatic brain injury: A fixel-based analysis.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Streamline-Based Analysis: A novel framework for tractogram-driven streamline-wise statistical inference.Research square · 2026Article
- Evaluating structural connectivity disruption after stroke: individual tractography or the use of a model-based approach?NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Article
- Age-group differences in diffusion MRI characteristics of cortico-cerebellar tracts and their association with bimanual performance.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- White matter microstructural and macrostructural profiles during midlife reveal sex differences between men and women at different menopausal stages.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Quantifying neurodegeneration within subdivisions of core motor pathways in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using diffusion MRI.Journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Sex-Specific White Matter Abnormalities Across the Dynamic Pain Connectome in Neuropathic Pain: A Fixel-Based Analysis Study.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Understanding Cognitive Aging Through White Matter: A Fixel-Based Analysis.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- White matter differences between younger and older adults revealed by fixel-based analysis.Aging brain · 2024Article
- Uncovering patterns of white matter degeneration in normal aging: Links between morphometry and microstructure.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- White matter and neurochemical mechanisms underlying age-related differences in motor processing speed.iScience · 2023Article
- Aerobic exercise is associated with region-specific changes in volumetric, tensor-based, and fixel-based measures of white matter integrity in healthy older adults.Neuroimage. Reports · 2023Article
- Cerebellar and basal ganglia structural connections in humans: Effect of aging and relation with memory and learning.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Article
- The effect of aging, hearing loss, and tinnitus on white matter in the human auditory system revealed with fixel-based analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Article
- Longitudinal developmental trajectories of inhibition and white-matter maturation of the fronto-basal-ganglia circuits.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2022Article
- Retinal ganglion cell endowment is correlated with optic tract fiber cross section, not density.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- White matter fiber-specific degeneration in older adults with metabolic syndrome.Molecular metabolism · 2022Article
- Six Months of Piano Training in Healthy Elderly Stabilizes White Matter Microstructure in the Fornix, Compared to an Active Control Group.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Article
- Regional glucose metabolic decreases with ageing are associated with microstructural white matter changes: a simultaneous PET/MR study.European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
25 authors.
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Abstract
White matter (WM) fiber bundles change dynamically with age. These changes could be driven by alterations in axonal diameter, axonal density, and myelin content. In this study, we applied a novel fixel-based analysis (FBA) framework to examine these changes throughout the adult lifespan. Using diffusion-weighted images from a cohort of 293 healthy volunteers (89 males/204 females) from ages 21 to 86 years old, we performed FBA to analyze age-related changes in microscopic fiber density (FD) and macroscopic fiber morphology (fiber cross section [FC]). Our results showed significant and widespread age-related alterations in FD and FC across the whole brain. Interestingly, some fiber bundles such as the anterior thalamic radiation, corpus callosum, and superior longitudinal fasciculus only showed significant negative relationship with age in FD values, but not in FC. On the other hand, some segments of the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway only showed significant negative relationship with age in FC, but not in FD. Analysis at the tract-level also showed that major fiber tract groups predominantly distributed in the frontal lobe (cingulum, forceps minor) exhibited greater vulnerability to the aging process than the others. Differences in FC and the combined measure of FD and cross section values observed between sexes were mostly driven by differences in brain sizes although male participants tended to exhibit steeper negative linear relationship with age in FD as compared to female participants. Overall, these findings provide further insights into the structural changes the brain's WM undergoes due to the aging process.
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