Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40800900›Full record

ArticleImaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)2025

Characterising ongoing brain aging and baseline effects from cross-sectional data.

Stephen M Smith, Karla L Miller, Thomas E Nichols

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Interpretable Local-to-Global Estimation of Brain Aging Speed From Morphological Changes Using Longitudinal Structural MRI Data.Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention · 2027
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Stephen M SmithOxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB/WIN), Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8166-069X
Karla L MillerOxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB/WIN), Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Thomas E NicholsOxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB/WIN), Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

"Brain age delta" is the difference between age estimated from brain imaging data and actual age. Positive delta in adults is normally interpreted as implying that an individual is aging (or has aged) faster than the population norm, an indicator of unhealthy aging. Unfortunately, from cross-sectional (single timepoint) imaging data, it is impossible to know whether a single individual's positive delta reflects a state of faster ongoing aging, or an unvarying trait (in other words, a "historical baseline effect" in the context of the population being studied). However, for a cross-sectional dataset comprising many individuals, one could attempt to disambiguate varying aging rates from fixed baseline effects. We present a method for doing this, and show that for the common approach of estimating a single delta per subject, baseline effects are likely to dominate. If instead one estimates multiple biologically distinct modes of brain aging, we find that some modes do reflect aging rates varying strongly across subjects. We demonstrate this, and verify our modelling, using longitudinal (two timepoint) data from 4,400 participants in UK Biobank. In addition, whereas previous work found incompatibility between cross-sectional and longitudinal brain aging, we show that careful data processing does show consistency between cross-sectional and longitudinal results.

Indexed as

brain agingbrain imaging

Identifiers

PMID40800900
PMCPMC12319756

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.