Thinning of the Cerebral Cortex in Aging
Abstract
The thickness of the cerebral cortex was measured in 106 non-demented participants ranging in age from 18 to 93 years. For each participant, multiple acquisitions of structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were averaged to yield high-resolution, high-contrast data sets. Cortical thickness was estimated as the distance between the gray/white boundary and the outer cortical surface, resulting in a continuous estimate across the cortical mantle. Global thinning was apparent by middle age. Men and women showed a similar degree of global thinning, and did not differ in mean thickness in the younger or older groups. Age-associated differences were widespread but demonstrated a patchwork of regional atrophy and sparing. Examination of subsets of the data from independent samples produced highly similar age-associated patterns of atrophy, suggesting that the specific anatomic patterns within the maps were reliable. Certain results, including prominent atrophy of prefrontal cortex and relative sparing of temporal and parahippocampal cortex, converged with previous findings. Other results were unexpected, such as the finding of prominent atrophy in frontal cortex near primary motor cortex and calcarine cortex near primary visual cortex. These findings demonstrate that cortical thinning occurs by middle age and spans widespread cortical regions that include primary as well as association cortex.
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Procedures for the measurement of cortical thickness have been validated against histological analysis and manual measurements.
“Procedures for the measurement of cortical thickness have been validated against histological analysis 38 and manual measurements 39,40 .”
From OASIS-3: Longitudinal Neuroimaging, Clinical, and Cognitive Dataset for Normal Aging and Alzheimer Disease (2019) · cites this paper as [40]
Cortical thickness studies show prominent atrophy of the prefrontal cortex and relative sparing of the temporal and parahippocampal cortices.
“The authors showed prominent atrophy of the prefrontal cortex, and relative sparing of the temporal and parahippocampal cortices, corroborating several previous volumetric findings (see also [68]).”
From Voxel-based mapping of brain gray matter volume and glucose metabolism profiles in normal aging (2009) · cites this paper as [75]
The advantage of a longitudinal PET-MR combined study relative to cross-sectional designs has been occasionally but not consistently shown.
“Although a longitudinal PET-MR combined study would obviously be of considerable interest, the advantage of this approach relative to cross-sectional designs has been occasionally [40,65], but not consistently [27,75], shown.”
From Voxel-based mapping of brain gray matter volume and glucose metabolism profiles in normal aging (2009) · cites this paper as [75]
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“Procedures for the measurement of cortical thickness have been validated against histological analysis(258) and manual measurements.(259,260) FreeSurfer morphometric procedures have been demonstrated to show good test–retest reliability across scanner manufacturers and across field strengths.”
MethodAltered functional connectivity of cortical networks in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia
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- Authors
- Salat, D. H.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Corresponding author
- Salat, D. H.
- ORCID
- Salat, D. H.
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2004-03-28
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 721-730
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2035079822
- Semantic Scholar
- e609cdbac646e4e40aa91209cb1e9327af5c5219
- Cited by
- 1,851
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 59 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 88 · 2023: 74 · 2022: 102 · 2021: 129 · 2020: 111 · 2019: 117 · 2018: 101 · 2017: 107 · 2016: 123 · 2015: 123 · 2014: 100 · 2013: 87 · 2012: 96
- FWCI
- 18.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Aging (AG03991, F32AG005886, AG 05681, P50AG005681, P01AG003991, AG 05886)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS039581, NS39581)
- National Center for Research Resources (P41-RR-14075, RR 14075, P41RR014075)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Keywords
- cortical thinning, cortical thickness, brain aging, regional brain atrophy, primary motor cortex, calcarine cortex, primary visual cortex, sex differences
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Atrophy, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Sex Characteristics
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