ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2023
The Effect of the Human Brainstem Myelination on Gait Speed in Normative Aging.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Excess iron in deep gray matter is associated with cognitive and functional decline: The mediating role of white matter myelin.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Investigating the association between human brainstem microstructural integrity and hypertension using magnetic resonance relaxometry.Hypertension research : official journal of the Japanese Society of Hypertension · 2025Article
- Harnessing myelin water fraction as an imaging biomarker of human cerebral aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and risk factors influencing myelination: A review.Journal of neurochemistry · 2024Review
- Cerebral white matter myelination is associated with longitudinal changes in processing speed across the adult lifespan.Brain communications · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The brainstem functions as a relay and integrative brain center and plays an essential role in motor function. Whether brainstem tissue deterioration, including demyelination, affects motor function has not been studied. Understanding the potential relationship between brainstem demyelination and motor function may be useful for the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases and to understand age-related gait impairments that have no apparent cause. In this work, we investigated the associations between rapid or usual gait speeds, as integrative measures of motor function, and cerebral myelin content. In 118 individuals (age 22-94 years) free of neurodegenerative diseases or cognitive impairment, myelin content was assessed as the myelin water fraction, a direct magnetic resonance imaging measure of myelin content, and longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates (R1 and R2), which are sensitive magnetic resonance imaging measures of myelin content. Our results indicate that participants with lower usual or rapid gait speed exhibited lower values of myelin water fraction and R1 in the main brainstem regions, which were more evident and statistically significant in the midbrain. In contrast, we found no significant associations between gait speeds and R2, an expected result because various physiological factors confound R2. These original findings provide evidence that the level of brainstem myelination may affect gait performance among cognitively unimpaired adults who are free from any clinically detectable neurodegenerative diseases. Further studies are needed to understand the longitudinal changes in brainstem myelination with aging and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
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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.