title: Age-associated losses of brain volume predict longitudinal cognitive declines over 8 to 20 years.
abstract: Absolute differences in global brain volume predict differences in cognitive ability among healthy older adults. However, absolute differences confound lifelong differences in brain size with amounts of age-related shrinkage. Measurements of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume were made to estimate age-related shrinkage in 93 healthy volunteers aged 63 to 86 years. Their current levels of brain shrinkage predicted their amounts of decline over the previous 8 to 20 years on repeated assessments during a longitudinal study on the Cattell "Culture Fair" Intelligence Test, on two tests of information processing speed, and marginally on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (D. Wechsler, 1981), but not on three memory tests. Loss of brain volume is an effective marker both for current cognitive status and for amounts and rates of previous age-related cognitive losses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. patrick.rabbitt@psy.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rabbitt
authors.forename: Said
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lunn
authors.forename: Marietta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thacker
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hutchinson
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horan
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pendleton
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013997:Time Factors