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. 2021 Apr 1;42(5):1287-1303.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.25293. Epub 2021 Jan 1.

Toward a unified analysis of cerebellum maturation and aging across the entire lifespan: A MRI analysis

José E Romero  1 , Pierrick Coupe  2   3 , Enrique Lanuza  4 , Gwenaelle Catheline  3 , José V Manjón  1 ; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Affiliations

Toward a unified analysis of cerebellum maturation and aging across the entire lifespan: A MRI analysis

José E Romero et al. Hum Brain Mapp. .

Abstract

Previous literature about the structural characterization of the human cerebellum is related to the context of a specific pathology or focused in a restricted age range. In fact, studies about the cerebellum maturation across the lifespan are scarce and most of them considered the cerebellum as a whole without investigating each lobule. This lack of study can be explained by the lack of both accurate segmentation methods and data availability. Fortunately, during the last years, several cerebellum segmentation methods have been developed and many databases comprising subjects of different ages have been made publically available. This fact opens an opportunity window to obtain a more extensive analysis of the cerebellum maturation and aging. In this study, we have used a recent state-of-the-art cerebellum segmentation method called CERES and a large data set (N = 2,831 images) from healthy controls covering the entire lifespan to provide a model for 12 cerebellum structures (i.e., lobules I-II, III, IV, VI, Crus I, Crus II, VIIB, VIIIA, VIIIB, IX, and X). We found that lobules have generally an evolution that follows a trajectory composed by a fast growth and a slow degeneration having sometimes a plateau for absolute volumes, and a decreasing tendency (faster in early ages) for normalized volumes. Special consideration is dedicated to Crus II, where slow degeneration appears to stabilize in elder ages for absolute volumes, and to lobule X, which does not present any fast growth during childhood in absolute volumes and shows a slow growth for normalized volumes.

Keywords: MRI segmentation; aging; cerebellum trajectory; lifespan; maturation; patch-based processing.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Cerebellum segmentation protocol
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Age distribution of cases used after quality control. Left chart shows age distribution for all the considered subjects. Right chart shows age distribution for child under 10 years old. Legend indicates the number of images for each data set after the quality control
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Cerebellum trajectories for absolute values (left) and normalized values (right). General model is shown in black, female model in magenta and male model in blue. Dots color correspond to the different data sets used. Male cases are represented by “+”s and female cases are represented by “o”s
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
First row: Cerebellum gray matter and white matter trajectories for absolute values. Second row: Cerebellum gray matter and white matter trajectories for normalized values. General model is shown in black, female model in magenta and male model in blue. Dots color correspond to the different data sets used. Male cases are represented by “+”s and female cases are represented by “o”s
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Volume trajectories for absolute volumes in cm3 for cerebellum lobules. General model is shown in black, female model in magenta and male model in blue. Dots color correspond to the different data sets used. Vertical axis shows volume in cm3. Horizontal axis shows age in years. Male cases are represented by “+”s and female cases are represented by “o”s
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Volume trajectories for normalized volumes for cerebellum lobules. General model is shown in black, female model in magenta and male model in blue. Dots color correspond to the different data sets used. Vertical axis shows volume in percentage to the TIV. Horizontal axis shows age in years. Male cases are represented by “+”s and female cases are represented by “o”s
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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