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Comparative Study
. 2009 Nov;47(13):2835-42.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.06.008. Epub 2009 Jun 21.

White matter tracts associated with set-shifting in healthy aging

Michele E Perry  1 , Carrie R McDonald, Donald J Hagler Jr, Lusineh Gharapetian, Joshua M Kuperman, Alain K Koyama, Anders M Dale, Linda K McEvoy
Affiliations
Comparative Study

White matter tracts associated with set-shifting in healthy aging

Michele E Perry et al. Neuropsychologia. 2009 Nov.

Abstract

Attentional set-shifting ability, commonly assessed with the Trail Making Test (TMT), decreases with increasing age in adults. Since set-shifting performance relies on activity in widespread brain regions, deterioration of the white matter tracts that connect these regions may underlie the age-related decrease in performance. We used an automated fiber tracking method to investigate the relationship between white matter integrity in several cortical association tracts and TMT performance in a sample of 24 healthy adults, 21-80 years. Diffusion tensor images were used to compute average fractional anisotropy (FA) for five cortical association tracts, the corpus callosum (CC), and the corticospinal tract (CST), which served as a control. Results showed that advancing age was associated with declines in set-shifting performance and with decreased FA in the CC and in association tracts that connect frontal cortex to more posterior brain regions, including the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Declines in average FA in these tracts, and in average FA of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), were associated with increased time to completion on the set-shifting subtask of the TMT but not with the simple sequencing subtask. FA values in these tracts were strong mediators of the effect of age on set-shifting performance. Automated tractography methods can enhance our understanding of the fiber systems involved in performance of specific cognitive tasks and of the functional consequences of age-related changes in those systems.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Statement: We confirm that we have read the Journal's position on the issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines. Anders M. Dale is a founder and holds equity in CorTechs Labs, Inc and also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by the University of California, San Diego in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The fiber tracts assessed in this study
The top row shows horizontal (left) and sagittal (middle) views of the 13 automatically generated tracks for a single subject. The corpus callosum (CC) is shown superimposed on the subject's T1 images on the right. The two rows below show left hemisphere tracts superimposed on the subject's T1-image. Lighter shading indicates that the fiber tract extends through the plane of the T1 underlay. CC = Corpus Callosum, IFOF = Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fasciculus IFOF, UF = Uncinate Fasciculus; SLF = Superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), ILF = Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus; CST = Corticospinal Tract.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Relationship Between Age and Time to Complete TMT A and B
Completion time on TMT Part A was not significantly affected by age whereas completion time on TMT Part B was significantly slower with advancing age.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Relationship between Time to Complete TMT B and average FA in each tract
See Table 3 for magnitude and significance of the correlations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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