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Fuhrmann D, Madsen KS, Johansen LB, Baaré WFC, Kievit RA. The midpoint of cortical thinning between late childhood and early adulthood differs between individuals and brain regions: Evidence from longitudinal modelling in a 12-wave neuroimaging sample. Neuroimage 2022; 261:119507. [PMID: 35882270 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Charting human brain maturation between childhood and adulthood is a fundamental prerequisite for understanding the rapid biological and psychological changes during human development. Two barriers have precluded the quantification of maturational trajectories: demands on data and demands on estimation. Using high-temporal resolution neuroimaging data of up to 12-waves in the HUBU cohort (N = 90, aged 7-21 years) we investigate changes in apparent cortical thickness across childhood and adolescence. Fitting a four-parameter logistic nonlinear random effects mixed model, we quantified the characteristic, s-shaped, trajectory of cortical thinning in adolescence. This approach yields biologically meaningful parameters, including the midpoint of cortical thinning (MCT), which corresponds to the age at which the cortex shows most rapid thinning - in our sample occurring, on average, at 14 years of age. These results show that, given suitable data and models, cortical maturation can be quantified with precision for each individual and brain region.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Fuhrmann
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
| | - K S Madsen
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Amager and Hvidovre, Kettegaard Allé 30, DK-2650, Hvidovre, Denmark; Radiography, Department of Technology, University College Copenhagen, Sigurdsgade 26, DK-2200, Copenhagen N., Denmark
| | - L B Johansen
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Amager and Hvidovre, Kettegaard Allé 30, DK-2650, Hvidovre, Denmark
| | - W F C Baaré
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Amager and Hvidovre, Kettegaard Allé 30, DK-2650, Hvidovre, Denmark
| | - R A Kievit
- Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Vidal-Pineiro D, Wang Y, Krogsrud SK, Amlien IK, Baaré WFC, Bartres-Faz D, Bertram L, Brandmaier AM, Drevon CA, Düzel S, Ebmeier K, Henson RN, Junqué C, Kievit RA, Kühn S, Leonardsen E, Lindenberger U, Madsen KS, Magnussen F, Mowinckel AM, Nyberg L, Roe JM, Segura B, Smith SM, Sørensen Ø, Suri S, Westerhausen R, Zalesky A, Zsoldos E, Walhovd KB, Fjell A. Correction: Individual variations in 'Brain Age' relate to early-life factors more than to longitudinal brain change. eLife 2022; 11:79475. [PMID: 35470797 PMCID: PMC9042230 DOI: 10.7554/elife.79475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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3
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Vidal-Pineiro D, Wang Y, Krogsrud SK, Amlien IK, Baaré WF, Bartres-Faz D, Bertram L, Brandmaier AM, Drevon CA, Düzel S, Ebmeier K, Henson RN, Junqué C, Kievit RA, Kühn S, Leonardsen E, Lindenberger U, Madsen KS, Magnussen F, Mowinckel AM, Nyberg L, Roe JM, Segura B, Smith SM, Sørensen Ø, Suri S, Westerhausen R, Zalesky A, Zsoldos E, Walhovd KB, Fjell A. Individual variations in 'brain age' relate to early-life factors more than to longitudinal brain change. eLife 2021; 10:69995. [PMID: 34756163 PMCID: PMC8580481 DOI: 10.7554/elife.69995] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Brain age is a widely used index for quantifying individuals’ brain health as deviation from a normative brain aging trajectory. Higher-than-expected brain age is thought partially to reflect above-average rate of brain aging. Here, we explicitly tested this assumption in two independent large test datasets (UK Biobank [main] and Lifebrain [replication]; longitudinal observations ≈ 2750 and 4200) by assessing the relationship between cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates of brain age. Brain age models were estimated in two different training datasets (n ≈ 38,000 [main] and 1800 individuals [replication]) based on brain structural features. The results showed no association between cross-sectional brain age and the rate of brain change measured longitudinally. Rather, brain age in adulthood was associated with the congenital factors of birth weight and polygenic scores of brain age, assumed to reflect a constant, lifelong influence on brain structure from early life. The results call for nuanced interpretations of cross-sectional indices of the aging brain and question their validity as markers of ongoing within-person changes of the aging brain. Longitudinal imaging data should be preferred whenever the goal is to understand individual change trajectories of brain and cognition in aging. Scientists who study the brain and aging are keen to find an effective way to measure brain health, which could help identify people at risk for dementia or memory problems. One popular marker is ‘brain age’. This measurement uses a brain scan to estimate a person’s chronological age, then compares the estimated brain age to the person’s actual age to determine whether their brain is aging faster or slower than expected for their age. However, since brain age relies on one brain scan taken at one point in time, it is not clear whether it really measures brain aging or if it might capture brain differences that have been present throughout the individual’s life. Studies comparing individual brain scans over several years would be necessary to know for sure. Now, Vidal-Piñeiro et al. show that the brain-age measurement does not reflect faster brain aging. In the experiments, the researchers compared repeated brain scans of thousands of individuals over 40 years of age. The experiments showed that deviations from normative brain age detected in a single scan reflected early life differences more than changes in the brain over time. For example, people with older-looking brains were more likely to have had a low birth weight or to have a combination of genes associated with having an older looking brain. Vidal-Piñeiro et al. show that brain age mostly reflects a pre-existing brain condition rather than brain aging. The experiments also suggest that genetics and early brain development likely have a strong impact on brain health throughout life. Future studies trying to test or develop brain-aging measurements should use serial measurements to track brain changes over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Didac Vidal-Pineiro
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Yunpeng Wang
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Stine K Krogsrud
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Inge K Amlien
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - William Fc Baaré
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Amager and Hvidovre, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - David Bartres-Faz
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Lars Bertram
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Lübeck Interdisciplinary Platform for Genome Analytics (LIGA), University of Lübeck, Lubeck, Germany
| | - Andreas M Brandmaier
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany.,Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Christian A Drevon
- Department of Nutrition, Inst Basic Med Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo & Vitas Ltd, Oslo, Norway
| | - Sandra Düzel
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Klaus Ebmeier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Richard N Henson
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Carme Junqué
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Rogier Andrew Kievit
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Simone Kühn
- Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Esten Leonardsen
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ulman Lindenberger
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany.,Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Kathrine S Madsen
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital - Amager and Hvidovre, Copenhagen, Denmark.,Radiography, Department of Technology, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Fredrik Magnussen
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Athanasia Monika Mowinckel
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lars Nyberg
- Umeå Centre for Functional Brain Imaging, Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Physiology Section and Department of Radiation Sciences, Diagnostic Radiology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - James M Roe
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Barbara Segura
- Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona; Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Stephen M Smith
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Øystein Sørensen
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Sana Suri
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Departments of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Rene Westerhausen
- Section for Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Andrew Zalesky
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Enikő Zsoldos
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Departments of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Kristine Beate Walhovd
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of radiology and nuclear medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Anders Fjell
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of radiology and nuclear medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
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4
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Fjell AM, Grydeland H, Wang Y, Amlien IK, Bartres-Faz D, Brandmaier AM, Düzel S, Elman J, Franz CE, Håberg AK, Kietzmann TC, Kievit RA, Kremen WS, Krogsrud SK, Kühn S, Lindenberger U, Macía D, Mowinckel AM, Nyberg L, Panizzon MS, Solé-Padullés C, Sørensen Ø, Westerhausen R, Walhovd KB. The genetic organization of longitudinal subcortical volumetric change is stable throughout the lifespan. eLife 2021; 10:66466. [PMID: 34180395 PMCID: PMC8260220 DOI: 10.7554/elife.66466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 06/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Development and aging of the cerebral cortex show similar topographic organization and are governed by the same genes. It is unclear whether the same is true for subcortical regions, which follow fundamentally different ontogenetic and phylogenetic principles. We tested the hypothesis that genetically governed neurodevelopmental processes can be traced throughout life by assessing to which degree brain regions that develop together continue to change together through life. Analyzing over 6000 longitudinal MRIs of the brain, we used graph theory to identify five clusters of coordinated development, indexed as patterns of correlated volumetric change in brain structures. The clusters tended to follow placement along the cranial axis in embryonic brain development, suggesting continuity from prenatal stages, and correlated with cognition. Across independent longitudinal datasets, we demonstrated that developmental clusters were conserved through life. Twin-based genetic correlations revealed distinct sets of genes governing change in each cluster. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms-based analyses of 38,127 cross-sectional MRIs showed a similar pattern of genetic volume–volume correlations. In conclusion, coordination of subcortical change adheres to fundamental principles of lifespan continuity and genetic organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anders Martin Fjell
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Hakon Grydeland
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Yunpeng Wang
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Inge K Amlien
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - David Bartres-Faz
- Departament de Medicina, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, and Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andreas M Brandmaier
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.,Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany
| | - Sandra Düzel
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jeremy Elman
- Center for Behavioral Genomics Twin Research Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Carol E Franz
- Center for Behavioral Genomics Twin Research Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Asta K Håberg
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.,Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
| | - Tim C Kietzmann
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Rogier Andrew Kievit
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - William S Kremen
- Center for Behavioral Genomics Twin Research Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States.,Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, VA San Diego Healthcare System, La Jolla, United States
| | - Stine K Krogsrud
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Simone Kühn
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.,Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ulman Lindenberger
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.,Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany
| | - Didac Macía
- Departament de Medicina, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, and Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Athanasia Monika Mowinckel
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lars Nyberg
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Radiation Sciences, Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - Matthew S Panizzon
- Center for Behavioral Genomics Twin Research Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States.,Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
| | - Cristina Solé-Padullés
- Departament de Medicina, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, and Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Øystein Sørensen
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rene Westerhausen
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kristine Beate Walhovd
- Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
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