Cognitive Processing Speed in Older Adults: Relationship with White Matter Integrity

Cognitive processing slows with age. We sought to determine the importance of white matter integrity, assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), at influencing cognitive processing speed among normal older adults, assessed using a novel battery of computerized, non-verbal, choice reaction time task...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 7; no. 11; p. e50425
Main Authors Kerchner, Geoffrey A., Racine, Caroline A., Hale, Sandra, Wilheim, Reva, Laluz, Victor, Miller, Bruce L., Kramer, Joel H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 21.11.2012
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adults
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Anisotropy
Atrophy
Biology
Brain Mapping
Brain research
Choice Behavior
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive ability
Cognitive tasks
Corpus callosum
Corpus Callosum - anatomy & histology
Corpus Callosum - physiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dementia
Diffusion rate
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Drug abuse
Female
Frontal Lobe - anatomy & histology
Frontal Lobe - physiology
Humans
Information processing
Integrity
Ischemia
Magnetic resonance imaging
Male
Mediation
Medicine
Memory
Middle Aged
Neurology
Neuropsychology
Older people
Parietal Lobe - anatomy & histology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Perforant Pathway - anatomy & histology
Perforant Pathway - physiology
Reaction time
Reaction Time - physiology
Reaction time task
Skin cancer
Statistical analysis
Substantia alba
Task Performance and Analysis
United States > US
San Francisco California
California
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Summary:Cognitive processing slows with age. We sought to determine the importance of white matter integrity, assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), at influencing cognitive processing speed among normal older adults, assessed using a novel battery of computerized, non-verbal, choice reaction time tasks. We studied 131 cognitively normal adults aged 55-87 using a cross-sectional design. Each participant underwent our test battery, as well as MRI with DTI. We carried out cross-subject comparisons using tract-based spatial statistics. As expected, reaction time slowed significantly with age. In diffuse areas of frontal and parietal white matter, especially the anterior corpus callosum, fractional anisotropy values correlated negatively with reaction time. The genu and body of the corpus callosum, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus were among the areas most involved. This relationship was not explained by gray or white matter atrophy or by white matter lesion volume. In a statistical mediation analysis, loss of white matter integrity mediated the relationship between age and cognitive processing speed.
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Competing Interests: The authors have the following interests. GAK is a paid consultant to Phloronol, Inc. CAR is a paid consultant to Novartis. BLM has a grant from Novartis; and has been a paid speaker at the Wellspan Neurosciences Symposium, the Arizona Alzheimer’s Association, and the Annual Silversides Professorship. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.
Conceived and designed the experiments: GAK CAR SH BLM JHK. Performed the experiments: GAK CAR SH RW VL JHK. Analyzed the data: GAK CAR SH RW VL JHK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GAK SH. Wrote the paper: GAK.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0050425