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To determine the relationship between age and gray matter structure and how interactions between gender and hemisphere impact this relationship, we examined correlations between global or regional gray matter volume and age, including interactions of gender and hemisphere, using a general linear model with voxel-based and region-of-interest analyses. Brain magnetic resonance images were collected from 1460 healthy individuals aged 20-69 years; the images were linearly normalized and segmented and restored to native space for analysis of global gray matter volume. Linearly normalized images were then non-linearly normalized and smoothed for analysis of regional gray matter volume. Analysis of global gray matter volume revealed a significant negative correlation between gray matter ratio (gray matter volume divided by intracranial volume) and age in both genders, and a significant interaction effect of age × gender on the gray matter ratio. In analyzing regional gray matter volume, the gray matter volume of all regions showed significant main effects of age, and most regions, with the exception of several including the inferior parietal lobule, showed a significant age × gender interaction. Additionally, the inferior temporal gyrus showed a significant age × gender × hemisphere interaction. No regional volumes showed significant age × hemisphere interactions. Our study may contribute to clarifying the mechanism(s) of normal brain aging in each brain region.
Pubmed ID: 21818377 RIS Download
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This is the website of the Structural Brain Mapping Group at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Jena. Our principal research focuses on the development of methods for structural brain imaging and their application. Specific areas of interest include the investigation of structural brain plasticity and schizophrenia research. Regional structural brain changes are among the most robust biological findings in schizophrenia, yet the underlying pathophysiological changes remain poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests that abnormal neuronal/dendritic plasticity is related to alterations in membrane lipids. We examined whether serum activity of membrane lipid remodeling/repairing cytosolic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) were related to regional brain structure in magnetic resonance images (MRI). The study involved 24 schizophrenia patients, who were either drug-nave or off antipsychotic medication, and 25 healthy controls. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis of T1-high-resolution MRI-images, we correlated both gray matter and white matter changes with serum PLA2-activity. PLA2 activity was increased in patients, consistent with previous findings. VBM group comparison of patients vs. controls showed abnormalities of frontal and medial temporal cortices/hippocampus, and left middle/superior temporal gyrus in first-episode patients. Group comparison of VBM/ PLA2-correlations revealed a distinct pattern of disease-related interactions between gray/white matter changes in patients and PLA2-activity: in first-episode patients (n = 13), PLA2-activity was associated with structural alterations in the left prefrontal cortex and the bilateral thalamus. Recurrent-episode patients (n = 11) showed a wide-spread pattern of associations between PLA2-activity and structural changes in the left (less right) prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex, the left (less right) thalamus and caudate nucleus, the left medial temporal and orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulum, and the cerebellum. Our findings demonstrate a potential association between membrane lipid biochemistry and focal brain structural abnormalities in schizophrenia. Differential patterns in first-episode vs. chronic patients might be related to PLA2-increase at disease-onset reflecting localized regenerative activity, whereas correlations in recurrent- episode patients might point to less specific neurodegenerative aspects of disease progression.
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