Targeting age-related differences in brain and cognition with multimodal imaging and connectome topography profiling

Lowe, A.; Paquola, C.; Vos de Wael, R.; Girn, M.; Lariviere, S.; Tavakol, S.; Caldairou, B.; Royer, J.; Schrader, D.; Bernasconi, A.; Bernasconi, N.; Spreng, R. N.; Bernhardt, B.

doi:10.1101/601146

bioRxiv · 10.1101/601146

Targeting age-related differences in brain and cognition with multimodal imaging and connectome topography profiling

Lowe, A.·Paquola, C.·Vos de Wael, R.·Girn, M.·Lariviere, S.·Tavakol, S.·Caldairou, B.·Royer, J.·Schrader, D.·Bernasconi, A.·Bernasconi, N.·Spreng, R. N.·Bernhardt, B.

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Abstract

I.AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWAging is characterised by accumulation of structural and metabolic changes in the brain. Recent studies suggest transmodal brain networks are especially sensitive to aging, which, we hypothesise, may be due to their apical position in the cortical hierarchy. Studying an open-access healthy cohort (n=102, age range = 30-89 years) with MRI and A{beta} PET data, we estimated age-related cortical thinning, hippocampal atrophy and A{beta} deposition. In addition to carrying out surface-based morphological and metabolic mapping, we stratified effects along neocortical and hippocampal resting-state functional connectome gradients derived from independent datasets. The cortical gradient depicts an axis of functional differentiation from sensory-motor regions to transmodal regions, whereas the hippocampal gradient recapitulates its long-axis. While age-related thinning and increased A{beta} deposition occurred across the entire cortical topography, increased A{beta} deposition was especially pronounced towards higher-order transmodal regions. Age-related atrophy was greater towards the posterior end of the hippocampal long-axis. No significant effect of age on A{beta} deposition in the hippocampus was observed. Imaging markers correlated with behavioural measures of fluid intelligence and episodic memory in a topography-specific manner. Our results strengthen existing evidence of structural and metabolic change in the aging brain and support the use of connectivity gradients as a compact framework to analyse and conceptualize brain-based biomarkers of aging.

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Lowe, A., Paquola, C., Vos de Wael, R., Girn, M., Lariviere, S., Tavakol, S., Caldairou, B., Royer, J., Schrader, D., Bernasconi, A., Bernasconi, N., Spreng, R. N., Bernhardt, B.. 2019-04-07. Targeting age-related differences in brain and cognition with multimodal imaging and connectome topography profiling. https://doi.org/10.1101/601146

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