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Cortical Thinning at Midlife: The PATH Through Life Study

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Abstract

Cortical thinning is a part of normal ageing. Recent studies suggest that accelerated cortical thinning in vulnerable regions may be a useful biomarker for neuropathologies including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Longitudinal studies, which have largely focused on older adults, have provided estimates of normative rates and patterns of age-related cortical thinning. Very little, however, is known about healthy cortical thinning at midlife. Here we provide longitudinal estimates of age-related cortical thinning observed over 8 years, in a large (n = 404) group of healthy individuals aged 44–49 years at baseline, who were scanned with MRI (1.5T) on up to three occasions. Age-related cortical thinning was assessed across the whole cortex. We measured a mean annual decrease in cortical thickness of 0.26 % on the left and 0.17 % on the right hemisphere, and largely affecting frontal and cingulate cortices. Medial and lateral temporal regions were generally spared. Studying regions that are specifically vulnerable to—or spared from—healthy age-related cortical thinning at midlife may be important for the early identification of neurodegeneration, including AD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Peter Butterworth, Simon Easteal, Helen Christensen, Patricia Jacomb, Karen Maxwell, and the PATH interviewers. The study was supported by NHMRC Grant No. 973302, 179805, 350833, 157125, ARC Grant No. 130101705, and the Dementia Collaborative Research Centres and the Canberra Hospital Salaried Doctors Private Practice Trust Fund. Nicolas Cherbuin and Kaarin Anstey are funded by ARC Fellowship No. 12010227 and NHMRC Fellowship No. 1002560. This research was partly undertaken on the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) facility in Canberra, Australia, which is supported by the Australian Commonwealth Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Mills Rd, Acton, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Marnie E. Shaw, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Kaarin J. Anstey & Nicolas Cherbuin

  2. Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Perminder S. Sachdev

  3. Neuropsychiatric Institute, The Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia

    Perminder S. Sachdev

Authors
  1. Marnie E. Shaw
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  2. Walter P. Abhayaratna
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  3. Perminder S. Sachdev
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  4. Kaarin J. Anstey
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  5. Nicolas Cherbuin
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Correspondence to Marnie E. Shaw.

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Shaw, M.E., Abhayaratna, W.P., Sachdev, P.S. et al. Cortical Thinning at Midlife: The PATH Through Life Study. Brain Topogr 29, 875–884 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-016-0509-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-016-0509-z

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