Prediction of motor recovery using initial impairment and fMRI 48 h poststroke.

There is substantial interpatient variation in recovery from upper limb impairment after stroke in patients with severe initial impairment. Defining recovery as a change in the upper limb Fugl-Meyer score (ΔFM), we predicted ΔFM with its conditional expectation (i.e., posterior mean) given upper limb Fugl-Meyer initial impairment (FM(ii)) and a putative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recovery measure. Patients with first time, ischemic stroke were imaged at 2.5 ± 2.2 days poststroke with 1.5-T fMRI during a hand closure task alternating with rest (fundamental frequency = 0.025 Hz, scan duration = 172 s). Confirming a previous finding, we observed that the prediction of ΔFM by FM(ii) alone is good in patients with nonsevere initial hemiparesis but is not good in patients with severe initial hemiparesis (96% and 16% of the total sum of squares of ΔFM explained, respectively). In patients with severe initial hemiparesis, prediction of ΔFM by the combination of FM(ii) and the putative fMRI recovery measure nonsignificantly increased predictive explanation from 16% to 47% of the total sum of squares of ΔFM explained. The implications of this preliminary negative result are discussed.

Noninvasive cortical stimulation enhances motor skill acquisition over multiple days through an effect on consolidation.

Motor skills can take weeks to months to acquire and can diminish over time in the absence of continued practice. Thus, strategies that enhance skill acquisition or retention are of great scientific and practical interest. Here we investigated the effect of noninvasive cortical stimulation on the extended time course of learning a novel and challenging motor skill task. A skill measure was chosen to reflect shifts in the task's speed-accuracy tradeoff function (SAF), which prevented us from falsely interpreting variations in position along an unchanged SAF as a change in skill. Subjects practiced over 5 consecutive days while receiving transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the primary motor cortex (M1). Using the skill measure, we assessed the impact of anodal (relative to sham) tDCS on both within-day (online) and between-day (offline) effects and on the rate of forgetting during a 3-month follow-up (long-term retention). There was greater total (online plus offline) skill acquisition with anodal tDCS compared to sham, which was mediated through a selective enhancement of offline effects. Anodal tDCS did not change the rate of forgetting relative to sham across the 3-month follow-up period, and consequently the skill measure remained greater with anodal tDCS at 3 months. This prolonged enhancement may hold promise for the rehabilitation of brain injury. Furthermore, these findings support the existence of a consolidation mechanism, susceptible to anodal tDCS, which contributes to offline effects but not to online effects or long-term retention.

Early imaging correlates of subsequent motor recovery after stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether functional magnetic resonance imaging activation obtained in the first few days after stroke correlates with subsequent motor recovery. METHODS: Twenty-three patients with hemiparesis after first-time stroke were scanned at 2.0 +/- 0.9 days while performing a simple motor task. We defined recovery as the change in Fugl-Meyer score from time of scan to approximately 3 months later (90 +/- 8 days). We performed three different tests to assess correlations between brain activation and change in Fugl-Meyer score: (1) multivariate (most sensitive to spatially diffuse activation); (2) voxel-wise Statistical Parametric Mapping (most sensitive to focal activation), and (3) primary motor cortex region-of-interest analysis (most sensitive to average activation within this region). All tests controlled for initial stroke severity and lesion volume, as well as other established clinical variables. RESULTS: The multivariate test was significant [F (595, 4,934) = 1.93; p < 0.001]. The Statistical Parametric Mapping test detected two small clusters of focal activity located in the ipsilesional postcentral gyrus and cingulate cortex (p < 0.05, corrected). The region-of-interest test was not significant. INTERPRETATION: There is a pattern of brain activation present in the first few days after stroke, of which the postcentral gyrus and cingulate cortex are a part, that correlates with subsequent motor recovery. This result suggests that there are recovery processes engaged early after stroke that could provide a target for intervention.

A common neural network for cognitive reserve in verbal and object working memory in young but not old.

Epidemiologic evidence suggests that cognitive reserve (CR) mitigates the effects of aging on cognitive function. The goal of this study was to see whether a common neural mechanism for CR could be demonstrated in brain imaging data acquired during the performance of 2 tasks with differing cognitive processing demands. Young and elder subjects were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a delayed item response task that used either letters (40 young, 18 old) or shapes (24 young, 21 old). Difficulty or load was manipulated by varying the number of stimuli that were presented for encoding. Load-dependent fMRI signal corresponding to each trial component (stimulus presentation, retention delay, and probe) and task (letter or shape) was regressed onto 2 putative CR variables. Canonical variates analysis was applied to the resulting maps of regression coefficients, separately for each trial component, to summarize the imaging data--CR relationships. There was a latent brain pattern noted in the stimulus presentation phase that manifested similar relationships between load-related encoding activation and CR variables across the letter and shape tasks in the young but not the elder age group. This spatial pattern could represent a general neural instantiation of CR that is affected by the aging process.

Inter-individual variability in the capacity for motor recovery after ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND: Motor recovery after stroke is predicted only moderately by clinical variables, implying that there is still a substantial amount of unexplained, biologically meaningful variability in recovery. Regression diagnostics can indicate whether this is associated simply with Gaussian error or instead with multiple subpopulations that vary in their relationships to the clinical variables. OBJECTIVE: To perform regression diagnostics on a linear model for recovery versus clinical predictors. METHODS: Forty-one patients with ischemic stroke were studied. Impairment was assessed using the upper extremity Fugl-Meyer Motor Score. Motor recovery was defined as the change in the upper extremity Fugl-Meyer Motor Score from 24 to 72 hours after stroke to 3 or 6 months later. The clinical predictors in the model were age, gender, infarct location (subcortical vs cortical), diffusion weighted imaging infarct volume, time to reassessment, and acute upper extremity Fugl-Meyer Motor Score. Regression diagnostics included a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for Gaussian errors and a test for outliers using Studentized deleted residuals. RESULTS: In the random sample, clinical variables explained only 47% of the variance in recovery. Among the patients with the most severe initial impairment, there was a set of regression outliers who recovered very poorly. With the outliers removed, explained variance in recovery increased to 89%, and recovery was well approximated by a proportional relationship with initial impairment (recovery congruent with 0.70 x initial impairment). CONCLUSIONS: Clinical variables only moderately predict motor recovery. Regression diagnostics demonstrated the existence of a subpopulation of outliers with severe initial impairment who show little recovery. When these outliers were removed, clinical variables were good predictors of recovery among the remaining patients, showing a tight proportional relationship to initial impairment.

Hemodynamic impairment as a stimulus for functional brain reorganization.

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate whether hemispheral hemodynamic impairment can play an independent role in the functional reorganization of motor-related activity in the brain. Fourteen patients with large vessel occlusion but no infarct performed a simple motor task with the hand contralateral to the occluded vessel. Statistical parametric maps of regional activity were generated to compare the distribution of motor-related activity among patients with that of control subjects. Patients were classified into normal or abnormal cerebral hemodynamics on the basis of intracerebral vasomotor reactivity using transcranial Doppler and carbon dioxide inhalation. Controls and patients with normal vasomotor reactivity showed typical motor activity in contralateral motor areas. When the 9 patients with abnormal vasomotor reactivity were compared with the 14 control subjects in a single analysis, unique motor activation was identified in ipsilateral motor regions in the nonhypoperfused hemisphere. In a confirmatory analysis, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal intensity was averaged in prespecified motor regions of interest. A significant group by hemisphere interaction was identified, driven by higher ipsilateral and lower contralateral hemisphere BOLD signal in patients with abnormal vasomotor reactivity compared with controls (F=12.40, P=0.002). The average ipsilateral motor region signal intensity was also significantly higher in the subgroup of patients with abnormal vasoreactivity and no TIA compared with controls (P=0.04). Our results suggest that hemodynamic impairment in one hemisphere, even in the absence of any focal lesion or any symptoms can be associated with a functional reorganization to the opposite hemisphere.

An event-related fMRI study of the neural networks underlying repetition suppression and reaction time priming in implicit visual memory.

Unfamiliar line drawings were presented to subjects three times during BOLD fMRI scanning. A set of brain areas was detected in which the effect of stimulus repetition on the evoked fMRI response depended on whether or not the drawing could be conceived as a coherent three-dimensional structure. Differential repetition effects were found in the neural response to drawings of both structurally possible and impossible objects. This differential effect of repetition was related to the amount of reaction time priming on the concurrent task involving decisions about three-dimensional structure in the possible but not in the impossible objects. These results point to different neurophysiological processing mechanisms for structurally possible and impossible images and demonstrate neural plasticity that predicts behavioral priming for structurally possible images.

An event-related fMRI study of the neural networks underlying the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval phase in a delayed-match-to-sample task.

Memory loads exceeding the limited capacity of working memory (WM) have been shown to expand the prefrontal areas that participate in WM and have revealed substantial individual differences in performance. We used a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task in an event-related fMRI study to map the full extent of the expanded regional activations associated with supracapacity loads. A 6-letter study array was compared to arrays of 1 and 3 letters. The task comprised separate encoding, retention, and retrieval fMRI epochs. A brain-wide spatial covariance analysis was applied to the data of all task epochs to identify patterns of correlated regional activations whose expression increased monotonically across 3 memory-load levels on a subject-by-subject basis. Such load-related activation patterns were in all task phases. Of greatest interest is the activation pattern that was obtained during the maintenance phase: increasing activation with memory load was found not only in the lateral PFC (BA 9,44) but also in the parietal lobe (BA 7,40), anterior cingulate (BA 32), and cerebellum. Decreasing activation was found in the occipito-temporal lobe (BA 19,39) as well as the medial prefrontal cortex (BA 9,10). Subject increases in pattern expression from 1 to 6 items were positively correlated with the corresponding reaction time increases (p<0.05) and negatively correlated with NARTIQ (p<0.05), indicating that people who were faster in their responses and had higher NARTIQ had to increase their subject expression of the memory-load-related activation pattern less and were more efficient at the cognitive task. Our method thus not only reproduced findings of other WM studies but also addressed the issue of interactions between lateral PFC and other parts of the brain during the task, for the retention of the to-be-remembered information. The load-related activation patterns from encoding and retrieval phase and their relationship to behavior are also discussed.

A developmental examination of gender differences in brain engagement during evaluation of threat.

BACKGROUND: Females appear to be more sensitive and responsive to social cues, including threat signals, than are males. Recent theoretical models suggest that developmental changes in brain functioning play important roles in the emergence of such gender differences. METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine developmental and gender differences in activation of neural structures thought to mediate attention to emotional faces depicting varying degrees of threat. Analyses focused on the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and anterior cingulate cortex during the evaluation of threat conveyed by faces. Healthy adolescents (n = 17; 53% male) and adults (n = 17; 53% male) were scanned while they rated how threatening pictures of neutral and emotional (angry, fearful, or happy) faces appeared. RESULTS: Results indicate significant interactions among age, gender, and face type for activation during explicit threat monitoring. In particular, adult women activated orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala selectively to unambiguous threat (angry) cues, while adult men showed a less discriminating pattern of activation. No gender differences were evident for adolescents, who as a group resembled adult males. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that there are gender differences in patterns of neural responses to emotional faces that are not fully apparent until adulthood.

Experience-dependent plasticity for attention to threat: Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in humans.

Biased attention to threat represents a key feature of anxiety disorders. This bias is altered by therapeutic or stressful experiences, suggesting that the bias is plastic. Charting on-line behavioral and neurophysiological changes in attention bias may generate insights on the nature of such plasticity. We used an attention-orientation task with threat cues to examine how healthy individuals alter their response over time to such cues. In Experiments 1 through 3, we established that healthy individuals demonstrate an increased attention bias away from threat over time. For Experiment 3, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the neural bases for this phenomenon. Gradually increasing attention bias away from threat is associated with increased activation in the occipitotemporal cortex. Examination of plasticity of attention bias with individuals at risk for anxiety disorders may reveal how threatening stimuli come to be categorized differently in this population over time.

Imaging human mesolimbic dopamine transmission with positron emission tomography. Part II: amphetamine-induced dopamine release in the functional subdivisions of the striatum.

The human striatum is functionally organized into limbic, associative, and sensorimotor subdivisions, which process information related to emotional, cognitive, and motor function. Dopamine projections ascending from the midbrain provide important modulatory input to these striatal subregions. The aim of this study was to compare activation of dopamine D2 receptors after amphetamine administration in the functional subdivisions of the human striatum. D2 receptor availability (V3") was measured with positron emission tomography and [11C]raclopride in 14 healthy volunteers under control conditions and after the intravenous administration of amphetamine (0.3 mg/kg). For each condition, [11C]raclopride was administered as a priming bolus followed by constant infusion, and measurements of D2 receptor availability were obtained under sustained binding equilibrium conditions. Amphetamine induced a significantly larger reduction in D2 receptor availability (DeltaV3") in limbic (ventral striatum, -15.3 +/- 11.8%) and sensorimotor (postcommissural putamen, -16.1 +/- 9.6%) regions compared with associative regions (caudate and precommissural putamen, -8.1 +/- 7.2%). Results of this region-of-interest analysis were confirmed by a voxel-based analysis. Correction for the partial volume effect showed even greater differences in DeltaV3" between limbic (-17.8 +/- 13.8%), sensorimotor (-16.6 +/- 9.9%), and associative regions (-7.5 +/- 7.5%). The increase in euphoria reported by subjects after amphetamine was associated with larger DeltaV3" in the limbic and sensorimotor regions, but not in the associative regions. These results show significant differences in the dopamine response to amphetamine between the functional subdivisions of the human striatum. The mechanisms potentially accounting for these regional differences in amphetamine-induced dopamine release within the striatum remain to be elucidated, but may be related to the asymmetrical feed-forward influences mediating the integration of limbic, cognitive, and sensorimotor striatal function via dopamine cell territories in the ventral midbrain.

Cognitive reserve-mediated modulation of positron emission tomographic activations during memory tasks in Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive reserve (CR) is the ability of an individual to cope with advancing brain pathological abnormalities so that he or she remains free of symptoms. Epidemiological data and evidence from positron emission tomography suggest that it may be mediated through education or IQ. OBJECTIVE: To investigate CR-mediated differential brain activation in Alzheimer disease (AD) subjects compared with healthy elderly persons. PARTICIPANTS: Using radioactive water positron emission tomography, we scanned 12 AD patients and 17 healthy elderly persons while performing a serial recognition memory task for nonverbalizable shapes under 2 conditions: low demand, in which one shape was presented in each study trial, and titrated demand, in which the study list length was adjusted so that each subject recognized shapes at approximately 75% accuracy. Positron emission tomographic scan acquisition included the encoding and recognition phases. A CR factor score that summarized years of education, National Adult Reading Test estimated IQ, and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised vocabulary subtest score (explaining 71% of the total variance) was used as an index of CR. Voxel-wise, multiple regression analyses were performed with the "activation" difference (titrated demand-low demand) as the dependent variables and the CR factor score as the independent one. Brain regions where regression slopes differed between the 2 groups were identified. RESULTS: The slopes were significantly more positive for the AD patients in the left precentral gyrus and in the left hippocampus and significantly more negative in the right fusiform, right middle occipital, left superior occipital, and left middle temporal gyri. CONCLUSION: Brain regions where systematic relationships (slopes) between subjects' education-IQ and brain activation differ as a function of disease status may mediate the differential ability to cope with (ie, delay or modify) clinical manifestations of AD.

Association of life activities with cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer disease: implications for the cognitive reserve hypothesis.

BACKGROUND: Regional cerebral blood flow (CBF), a good indirect index of cerebral pathologic changes in Alzheimer disease (AD), is more severely reduced in patients with higher educational attainment and IQ when controlling for clinical severity. This has been interpreted as suggesting that cognitive reserve allows these patients to cope better with the pathologic changes in AD. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether premorbid engagement in various activities may also provide cognitive reserve. DESIGN: We evaluated intellectual, social, and physical activities in 9 patients with early AD and 16 healthy elderly controls who underwent brain H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography. In voxelwise multiple regression analyses that controlled for age and clinical severity, we investigated the association between education, estimated premorbid IQ, and activities, and CBF. RESULTS: In accordance with previous findings, we replicated an inverse association between education and CBF and IQ and CBF in patients with AD. In addition, there was a negative correlation between previous reported activity score and CBF in patients with AD. When both education and IQ were added as covariates in the same model, a higher activity score was still associated with more prominent CBF deficits. No significant associations were detected in the controls. CONCLUSIONS: At any given level of clinical disease severity, there is a greater degree of brain pathologic involvement in patients with AD who have more engagement in activities, even when education and IQ are taken into account. This may suggest that interindividual differences in lifestyle may affect cognitive reserve by partially mediating the relationship between brain damage and the clinical manifestation of AD.

Choice selection and reward anticipation: an fMRI study.

We examined neural activations during decision-making using fMRI paired with the wheel of fortune task, a newly developed two-choice decision-making task with probabilistic monetary gains. In particular, we assessed the impact of high-reward/risk events relative to low-reward/risk events on neural activations during choice selection and during reward anticipation. Seventeen healthy adults completed the study. We found, in line with predictions, that (i) the selection phase predominantly recruited regions involved in visuo-spatial attention (occipito-parietal pathway), conflict (anterior cingulate), manipulation of quantities (parietal cortex), and preparation for action (premotor area), whereas the anticipation phase prominently recruited regions engaged in reward processes (ventral striatum); and (ii) high-reward/risk conditions relative to low-reward/risk conditions were associated with a greater neural response in ventral striatum during selection, though not during anticipation. Following an a priori ROI analysis focused on orbitofrontal cortex, we observed orbitofrontal cortex activation (BA 11 and 47) during selection (particularly to high-risk/reward options), and to a more limited degree, during anticipation. These findings support the notion that (1) distinct, although overlapping, pathways subserve the processes of selection and anticipation in a two-choice task of probabilistic monetary reward; (2) taking a risk and awaiting the consequence of a risky decision seem to affect neural activity differently in selection and anticipation; and thus (3) common structures, including the ventral striatum, are modulated differently by risk/reward during selection and anticipation.

An event-related fMRI study of the neurobehavioral impact of sleep deprivation on performance of a delayed-match-to-sample task.

Eighteen subjects (ages 18-35) underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) while performing a delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task before and immediately after 48 h of sustained wakefulness. The DMS trial events were: a 3-s study period of either a one-, three-, or six-letter visual array; a 7-s retention interval; and a 3-s probe period, where a button press indicated whether the probe letter was in the study array. Ordinal Trend Canonical Variates Analysis (OrT CVA) was applied to the data from the probe period for trials with six-letter study lists prior to and immediately following sleep deprivation to find an activation pattern whose expression decreased with sleep deprivation in as many subjects as possible, while being present in both conditions. The first principal component of the OrT analysis identified a covariance pattern whose expression decreased as a function of sleep deprivation in 17 of 18 subjects (p<0.001). While overall expression of the pattern showed a systematic decrease with sleep deprivation, the brain regions that make up the pattern show covarying increases and decreases in activation. Regions that decreased their activation were noted in the parietal (BA 7 and 40), temporal (BA 37, 38 and 39) and occipital (BA 18 and 19) lobes; regions that increased their activation were noted in the cerebellum, basal ganglia, thalamus and the anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 32). The reduction in pattern expression with sleep deprivation for each subject was related to the change in performance on the DMS task. Subject decreases in pattern expression were correlated with reductions in recognition accuracy (p<0.05), increased intra-individual variability in reaction time (p<0.005) and increased lapsing (p<0.005).

Global familiarity of visual stimuli affects repetition-related neural plasticity but not repetition priming.

In this study, we tested the prediction of the component process model of priming [Henson, R.N. (2003). Neuroimaging studies of priming. Prog Neurobiol, 70 (1), 53-81] that repetition priming of familiar and unfamiliar objects produces qualitatively different neural repetition effects. In an fMRI study, subjects viewed four repetitions of familiar objects and globally unfamiliar objects with familiar components. Reliable behavioral priming occurred for both item types across the four presentations and was of a similar magnitude for both stimulus types. The imaging data were analyzed using multivariate linear modeling, which permits explicit testing of the hypothesis that the repetition effects for familiar and unfamiliar objects are qualitatively different (i.e., non-scaled versions of one another). The results showed the presence of two qualitatively different latent spatial patterns of repetition effects from presentation 1 to presentation 4 for familiar and unfamiliar objects, indicating that familiarity with an object's global structural, semantic, or lexical features is an important factor in priming-related neural plasticity. The first latent spatial pattern strongly weighted regions with a similar repetition effect for both item types. The second pattern strongly weighted regions contributing a repetition suppression effect for the familiar objects and repetition enhancement for the unfamiliar objects, particularly the posterior insula, superior temporal gyrus, precentral gyrus, and cingulate cortex. This differential repetition effect might reflect the formation of novel memory representations for the unfamiliar items, which already exist for the familiar objects, consistent with the component process model of priming.

An investigation of statistical power for continuous arterial spin labeling imaging at 1.5 T.

Variance estimates can be used in conjunction with scientifically meaningful effect sizes to design experiments with type II error control. Here we present estimates of intra- and inter-subject variances for region of interest (ROI) from resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) maps obtained using whole brain, spin echo echoplanar (SE-EPI) continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) imaging on 52 elderly subjects (age=70.5+/-7.9 years, 29 males). There was substantial intrasubject systematic variability in CBF of gray matter ROIs corresponding to a range of standard deviations=[39-168] (ml/(100 g min)). This variability was mainly due to two factors: (1) an expected inverse relationship between ROI volume and intrasubject variance and (2) an increased effective post-labeling delay for more superior slices acquired later in the sequence. For example, intrasubject variance in Brodmann area 4 (BA 4) was approximately 8 times larger than in hippocampus, despite their similar gray matter volumes. Estimated ROI-wise power was computed for various numbers of acquired CBF images, numbers of subjects, and CBF effect sizes for two experimental designs: independent sample t-test and paired t-test. The theoretical effects of pulse sequence and field strength on general applicability of these results are discussed.

Explaining savings for visuomotor adaptation: linear time-invariant state-space models are not sufficient.

Adaptation of the motor system to sensorimotor perturbations is a type of learning relevant for tool use and coping with an ever-changing body. Memory for motor adaptation can take the form of savings: an increase in the apparent rate constant of readaptation compared with that of initial adaptation. The assessment of savings is simplified if the sensory errors a subject experiences at the beginning of initial adaptation and the beginning of readaptation are the same. This can be accomplished by introducing either 1) a sufficiently small number of counterperturbation trials (counterperturbation paradigm [CP]) or 2) a sufficiently large number of zero-perturbation trials (washout paradigm [WO]) between initial adaptation and readaptation. A two-rate, linear time-invariant state-space model (SSM(LTI,2)) was recently shown to theoretically produce savings for CP. However, we reasoned from superposition that this model would be unable to explain savings for WO. Using the same task (planar reaching) and type of perturbation (visuomotor rotation), we found comparable savings for both CP and WO paradigms. Although SSM(LTI,2) explained some degree of savings for CP it failed completely for WO. We conclude that for visuomotor rotation, savings in general is not simply a consequence of LTI dynamics. Instead savings for visuomotor rotation involves metalearning, which we show can be modeled as changes in system parameters across the phases of an adaptation experiment.

Age-related changes in brain activation during a delayed item recognition task.

To test competing models of age-related changes in brain functioning (capacity limitation, neural efficiency, compensatory reorganization, and dedifferentiation), young (n=40; mean age=25.1 years) and elderly (n=18; mean age=74.4 years) subjects performed a delayed item recognition task for visually presented letters with three set sizes (1, 3, or 6 letters) while being scanned with BOLD fMRI. Spatial patterns of brain activity corresponding to either the slope or y-intercept of fMRI signal with respect to set size during memory set encoding, retention delay, or probe stimulus presentation trial phases were compared between elder and young populations. Age effects on fMRI slope during encoding and on fMRI y-intercept during retention delay were consistent with neural inefficiency; age effects on fMRI slope during retention delay were consistent with dedifferentiation. None of the other fMRI signal components showed any detectable age effects. These results suggest that, even within the same task, the nature of brain activation changes with aging can vary based on cognitive process engaged.

Structural MRI covariance patterns associated with normal aging and neuropsychological functioning.

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown dramatic age-associated changes in grey and white matter volume, but typically use univariate analyses that do not explicitly test the interrelationship among brain regions. The current study used a multivariate approach to identify covariance patterns of grey and white matter tissue density to distinguish older from younger adults. A second aim was to examine whether the expression of the age-associated covariance topographies is related to performance on cognitive tests affected by normal aging. Eighty-four young (mean age=24.0) and 29 older (mean age=73.1) participants were scanned with a 1.5T MRI machine and assessed with a cognitive battery. Images were spatially normalized and segmented to produce grey and white matter density maps. A multivariate technique, based on the subprofile scaling model, was used to capture sources of between- and within-group variation to produce a linear combination of principal components that represented a "pattern" or "network" that best discriminated between the two age groups. Univariate analyses were also conducted with statistical parametric maps. Grey and white matter covariance patterns were identified that reliably discriminated between the groups with greater than 0.90 sensitivity and specificity. The identified patterns were similar for the univariate and multivariate techniques, and involved widespread regions of the cortex and subcortex. Age and the expression of both patterns were significantly associated with performance on tests of attention, language, memory, and executive functioning. The results suggest that identifiable networks of grey and white matter regions systematically decline with age and that pattern expression is linked to age-related cognitive decline.