ReviewBrain structure & function2022
Aging and white matter microstructure and macrostructure: a longitudinal multi-site diffusion MRI study of 1218 participants.
Review in Brain structure & function, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diffusion-relaxation MRI as virtual histology: separable microstructural signatures of AD pathology in ex vivo human brain.Research square · 2026Article
- White matter reflects the childhood exposome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Separable multidimensional MRI signatures of cellular and structural pathology in Alzheimer's disease.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Major Lifetime Discrimination Exposure Accelerates Brain Microstructural Aging: Diffusion MRI Evidence From MIDUS.Biopsychosocial science and medicine · 2026Article
- An Investigation of the Correlation Between Total Intracranial Volume and Body Mass Index.Saudi medical journal · 2026Article
- Variations in perfusion detectable in advance of microstructure in white matter aging.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Testing retrogenesis and physiological explanations for tract-wise white matter aging: links to developmental order, fiber calibre, and vascularization.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Mechanical characterization of human versus porcine brain tissue under large strains.Biomechanics and modeling in mechanobiology · 2026Article
- Neurodegeneration biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease: axonal density index expands the "N" in the AT(N) framework.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- The average does not represent the individual: White matter variability across the brain, across the population, and across the lifespan.Research square · 2026Article
- 40 Years of diffusion MRI in the brain: From history to emerging frontiers.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Review
- Associations of cerebrospinal fluid measures of synaptic function with white matter microstructure and cognition in older adults.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Synaptic micromechanics and brain softening as a mechanobiological hypothesis for Alzheimer's disease.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Is correction for gradient nonlinearity necessary in a brain diffusion tensor MRI clinical study?PloS one · 2026Article
- Separable, symptom specific alterations in brain microstructure associated with early-stage Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Utility of Harmonisation for Fixel-Based Metrics in Travelling Subjects and Alzheimer's Disease Data.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Exploratory study of the dysregulation of age-related changes in neural/glial antigen 2 and neuroinflammation markers in individuals with major depression.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Mapping along-tract commissural and association white matter microstructural differences in autistic children and young adults.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- The cellular associates of late life changes in white matter microstructure.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Quantifying the microstructural and macrostructural geometrical features of the human brain's connections is necessary for understanding normal aging and disease. Here, we examine brain white matter diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data from one cross-sectional and two longitudinal data sets totaling in 1218 subjects and 2459 sessions of people aged 50-97 years. Data was drawn from well-established cohorts, including the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging data set, Cambridge Centre for Ageing Neuroscience data set, and the Vanderbilt Memory & Aging Project. Quantifying 4 microstructural features and, for the first time, 11 macrostructure-based features of volume, area, and length across 120 white matter pathways, we apply linear mixed effect modeling to investigate changes in pathway-specific features over time, and document large age associations within white matter. Conventional diffusion tensor microstructure indices are the most age-sensitive measures, with positive age associations for diffusivities and negative age associations with anisotropies, with similar patterns observed across all pathways. Similarly, pathway shape measures also change with age, with negative age associations for most length, surface area, and volume-based features. A particularly novel finding of this study is that while trends were homogeneous throughout the brain for microstructure features, macrostructural features demonstrated heterogeneity across pathways, whereby several projection, thalamic, and commissural tracts exhibited more decline with age compared to association and limbic tracts. The findings from this large-scale study provide a comprehensive overview of the age-related decline in white matter and demonstrate that macrostructural features may be more sensitive to heterogeneous white matter decline. Therefore, leveraging macrostructural features may be useful for studying aging and could facilitate comparisons in a variety of diseases or abnormal conditions.
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