Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40960009›Full record

ArticleHuman brain mapping2025

Imaging Developmental Trajectories of Laminar Magnetic Susceptibility Throughout Adulthood in Human Brain Cortex.

Xin Wang, Jiangjie Wu, Xiaojun Guan, Xiaojun Xu, Hongjiang Wei, Yuyao Zhang

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Human brain mapping, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing 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

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
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

6 authors.

Xin WangSchool of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.ORCID 0009-0002-2154-7171
Jiangjie WuSchool of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
Xiaojun GuanDepartment of Radiology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, China.
Xiaojun XuDepartment of Radiology of the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, China.ORCID 0000-0002-0127-2812
Hongjiang WeiSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Yuyao ZhangSchool of Information Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.

Funding

National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Project 2022ZD0208605, 2022ZD0208600
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Iron, myelin, and proteins are critical for neural integrity and cognitive function, yet their concentrations and distributions in brain tissue vary significantly across the lifespan. This natural variability necessitates age-specific reference ranges that account for developmental and aging-related changes. Noninvasive imaging techniques, such as Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) and R2* imaging, provide complementary insights into these dynamics. Although age-related susceptibility trajectories have been well characterized in subcortical regions, systematic investigations of laminar susceptibility across the entire cortex remain limited. In this study, we analyzed QSM and R2* images from 447 healthy adults (18-80 years) to characterize cortical susceptibility profiles. Rather than averaging values across entire cortical regions, we normalized cortical depth to a percentage scale (1%-100%), where 1% corresponds to the pial surface and 100% to the white matter boundary. Image intensities at varying cortical depths were extracted and averaged to estimate depth-specific iron levels, motivated by known layer-dependent iron distribution in the cortex. Our results support depth-specific spatial patterns of iron in QSM and R2*: QSM peaked in deep cortical layers (80%-99%), with higher frontal and occipital values compared with temporal and parietal regions. Conversely, elevated R2* in superficial temporal and occipital layers suggests region-specific microstructural variations. Both QSM and R2* exhibited quadratic age-related trajectories, increasing until midlife before declining slightly. Unlike in white matter (WM) and deep gray matter (GM), cortical iron and myelin distributions exhibit distinct patterns, rendering conventional susceptibility-iron models for WM/GM unsuitable for cortical regions. To address this limitation, we focused on high-iron cortical layers, where diamagnetic confounds are minimized. By calibrating our in vivo age-QSM data against the ex vivo age-iron reference curve, we developed an optimized linear transformation and used a specific combination of layers across regions. This refined model achieved superior predictive accuracy (R

Indexed as

AgingCerebral CortexIronMagnetic Resonance ImagingAdolescentAdultAgedAged, 80 and overBrain MappingFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedWhite MatterYoung AdultIronagingcerebral cortexironlifespanmyelinquantitative susceptibility mappingR2*

Identifiers

PMID40960009
PMCPMC12441809

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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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.