A slower rate of sulcal widening in the brains of the nondemented oldest old

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 229; p. 117740
• Main Authors: Tang, Hui, Liu, Tao, Liu, Hao, Jiang, Jiyang, Cheng, Jian, Niu, Haijun, Li, Shuyu, Brodaty, Henry, Sachdev, Perminder, Wen, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2021; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Accuracy; Age; Aging; Atrophy; Brain research; Cognition; Gender differences; Geriatrics; Morphology; MRI; Neurodegenerative diseases; Oldest old; Oldest old people; Sulcal depth; Sulcal width; Aging; Sulcal depth; MRI; Oldest old; Sulcal width
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117740

•The sulcal width and depth were analyzed in young old and oldest old cohorts.•The rate of sulcal widening slowed in the oldest old.•Sex differences and hemispherical asymmetry were found in both groups. The relationships between aging and brain morphology have been reported in many previous structural brain studies. However, the trajectories of successful brain aging in the extremely old remain underexplored. In the limited research on the oldest old, covering individuals aged 85 years and older, there are very few studies that have focused on the cortical morphology, especially cortical sulcal features. In this paper, we measured sulcal width and depth as well as cortical thickness from T1-weighted scans of 290 nondemented community-dwelling participants aged between 76 and 103 years. We divided the participants into young old (between 76 and 84; mean = 80.35±2.44; male/female = 76/88) and oldest old (between 85 and 103; mean = 91.74±5.11; male/female = 60/66) groups. The results showed that most of the examined sulci significantly widened with increased age and that the rates of sulcal widening were lower in the oldest old. The spatial pattern of the cortical thinning partly corresponded with that of sulcal widening. Compared to females, males had significantly wider sulci, especially in the oldest old. This study builds a foundation for future investigations of neurocognitive disorders and neurodegenerative diseases in the oldest old, including centenarians.