Scientific article
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English

Cognitive Intraindividual Variability and White Matter Integrity in Aging

Published inTheScientificWorldjournal, vol. 2013, p. 1-16
Publication date2013
Abstract

The intraindividual variability (IIV) of cognitive performance has been shown to increase with aging. While brain research has generally focused on mean performance, little is known about neural correlates of cognitive IIV. Nevertheless, some studies suggest that IIV relates more strongly than mean level of performance to the quality of white matter (WM). Our study aims to explore the relation betweenWM integrity and cognitive IIV by combining functional (fMRI) and structural (diffusion tensor imaging, DTI) imaging. Twelve young adults (aged 18–30 years) and thirteen older adults (61–82 years) underwent a battery of neuropsychological tasks, along with fMRI and DTI imaging. Their behavioral data were analyzed and correlated with the imaging data atWMregions of interest defined on the basis of (1) the fMRI-activated areas and (2) the Johns Hopkins University (JHU)WMtractography atlas. For both methods, fractional anisotropy, along with the mean, radial, and axial diffusivity parameters, was computed. In accord with previous studies, our results showed that the DTI parameters were more related to IIV than to mean performance. Results also indicated that age differences in the DTI parameters were more pronounced in the regions activated primarily by young adults during a choice reaction-time task than in those also activated in older adults.

Keywords
  • Aging
  • DTI
  • Intraindividual variability
Funding
  • Swiss National Science Foundation - 100014 135410
Citation (ISO format)
MELLA, Nathalie et al. Cognitive Intraindividual Variability and White Matter Integrity in Aging. In: TheScientificWorldjournal, 2013, vol. 2013, p. 1–16. doi: 10.1155/2013/350623
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Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1537-744X
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