Generality and specificity in cognitive aging: A volumetric brain analysis

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether, in old age, brain volume differences are associated with age-related change in general mental ability and/or specific cognitive abilities. METHODS The authors investigate the association between brain volumes and current cognitive function in a well-characterized sample of healthy old people (aged 79-80) whose intelligence was recorded at age 11. This allowed estimation of intellectual change over the life span. RESULTS After accounting for childhood intelligence, associations were found between specific cognitive measures and brain volumes. An association was also found between volumes and the general intelligence factor g. After removing the influence of g from each of the specific cognitive measures, no remaining significant associations were found between brain volumes and the specific part of each test. CONCLUSIONS Generalized cognitive aging is associated with brain volume differences, but there is no evidence in this sample that specific components of cognitive aging are associated with differences in brain volume.

[1]  P. J. Davis,et al.  A NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING CRANIAL CAVITY VOLUME AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE ASSESSMENT OF CEREBRAL ATROPHY AT AUTOPSY , 1977 .

[2]  Dh Miller,et al.  The predictive value of brain lesion load in determining brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis: 14 year follow up data following first presentation with a clinically isolated syndrome , 2002 .

[3]  D D Blatter,et al.  Quantitative volumetric analysis of brain MR: normative database spanning 5 decades of life. , 1995, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[4]  A. Dale,et al.  Age-related alterations in white matter microstructure measured by diffusion tensor imaging , 2005, Neurobiology of Aging.

[5]  Erin D Bigler,et al.  Temporal lobe morphology in normal aging and traumatic brain injury. , 2002, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[6]  Karen J. Ferguson,et al.  Intracranial capacity and brain volumes are associated with cognition in healthy elderly men , 2002, Neurology.

[7]  I. Deary,et al.  What provides cerebral reserve? , 2004, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[8]  Naftali Raz,et al.  Volumetric asymmetries of the human brain: Intellectual correlates , 1987, Brain and Cognition.

[9]  Lawrence J. Whalley,et al.  The Ageing Brain , 2001 .

[10]  N. Makris,et al.  Gyri of the human neocortex: an MRI-based analysis of volume and variance. , 1998, Cerebral cortex.

[11]  Paul B. Baltes,et al.  Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology : On the dynamics between growth and decline , 1987 .

[12]  Tyrone D. Cannon,et al.  Genetic influences on brain structure , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[13]  Paul M. Matthews,et al.  beta-interferon treatment does not immediately slow the progression of axonal injury in multiple sclerosis , 2002 .

[14]  Faith M. Gunning-Dixon,et al.  Neuroanatomical correlates of cognitive aging: evidence from structural magnetic resonance imaging. , 1998, Neuropsychology.

[15]  D. Head,et al.  Differential aging of the medial temporal lobe , 2004, Neurology.

[16]  Michael A. McDaniel.  Big-brained people are smarter: A meta-analysis of the relationship between in vivo brain volume and intelligence , 2005 .

[17]  Philip A. Vernon,et al.  The neuropsychology and psychophysiology of human intelligence , 2004 .

[18]  P. Rubé,et al.  L’examen Clinique en Psychologie , 1959 .

[19]  T. Salthouse,et al.  What needs to be explained to account for age-related effects on multiple cognitive variables? , 2003, Psychology and aging.

[20]  Ian J. Deary,et al.  The Stability of Individual Differences in Mental Ability from Childhood to Old Age: Follow-up of the 1932 Scottish Mental Survey , 2000 .

[21]  C Donlan,et al.  The University of Manchester Age and Cognitive Performance Research Centre and North East Age Research Longitudinal Programmes, 1982 to 1997. , 1993, Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie.

[22]  Marko Wilke,et al.  Bright spots: correlations of gray matter volume with IQ in a normal pediatric population , 2003, NeuroImage.

[23]  R. Sternberg,et al.  Handbook of Intelligence , 2000 .

[24]  I. Deary,et al.  The NART as an index of prior intellectual functioning: a retrospective validity study covering a 66-year interval , 2001, Psychological Medicine.

[25]  J. Mcardle,et al.  Comparative longitudinal structural analyses of the growth and decline of multiple intellectual abilities over the life span. , 2002, Developmental psychology.

[26]  Ludger Tebartz van Elst,et al.  Absence of cortical gray matter abnormalities in psychosis of epilepsy: a voxel-based MRI study in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. , 2004, The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences.

[27]  Ian J. Deary,et al.  Looking down on human intelligence , 2000 .

[28]  J. Schneider,et al.  Individual differences in rates of change in cognitive abilities of older persons. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[29]  D. Wechsler.  Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. , 1955 .

[30]  I. Deary,et al.  Childhood and current cognitive function in healthy 80-year-olds: a DT-MRI study , 2003, Neuroreport.

[31]  M. O’Sullivan,et al.  Activate your online subscription , 2001, Neurology.

[32]  Vanessa Sluming,et al.  Voxel-based morphometry and stereology provide convergent evidence of the importance of medial prefrontal cortex for fluid intelligence in healthy adults , 2005, NeuroImage.

[33]  Dorret I Boomsma,et al.  Genetic correlations between brain volumes and the WAIS-III dimensions of verbal comprehension, working memory, perceptual organization, and processing speed. , 2003, Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies.

[34]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Cerebral Asymmetry and the Effects of Sex and Handedness on Brain Structure: A Voxel-Based Morphometric Analysis of 465 Normal Adult Human Brains , 2001, NeuroImage.

[35]  F. Gunning-Dixon,et al.  The cognitive correlates of white matter abnormalities in normal aging: a quantitative review. , 2000, Neuropsychology.

[36]  G. Ratcliff,et al.  Relation of education to brain size in normal aging , 1999, Neurology.

[37]  N. Raz,et al.  Shrinkage of the Entorhinal Cortex over Five Years Predicts Memory Performance in Healthy Adults , 2004, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[38]  S. Resnick,et al.  Longitudinal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies of Older Adults: A Shrinking Brain , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[39]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study of Ageing in 465 Normal Adult Human Brains , 2001, NeuroImage.

[40]  G. Bartzokis,et al.  Heterogeneous age-related breakdown of white matter structural integrity: implications for cortical “disconnection” in aging and Alzheimer’s disease , 2004, Neurobiology of Aging.

[41]  C. Petten.  Relationship between hippocampal volume and memory ability in healthy individuals across the lifespan: review and meta-analysis , 2004, Neuropsychologia.

[42]  J. Gabrieli,et al.  Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience , 2004, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[43]  Alan J Thompson,et al.  The reproducibility and sensitivity of brain tissue volume measurements derived from an SPM‐based segmentation methodology , 2002, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[44]  Rex E. Jung,et al.  Structural brain variation and general intelligence , 2004, NeuroImage.

[45]  T. Salthouse.  Aging and measures of processing speed , 2000, Biological Psychology.

[46]  R. Rudick,et al.  Use of the brain parenchymal fraction to measure whole brain atrophy in relapsing-remitting MS , 1999, Neurology.

[47]  H. Birx,et al.  The Mismeasure of Man , 1981 .

[48]  Y. Stern.  What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept , 2002, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.