title: A common brain network links development, aging, and vulnerability to disease.
abstract: Several theories link processes of development and aging in humans. In neuroscience, one model posits for instance that healthy age-related brain degeneration mirrors development, with the areas of the brain thought to develop later also degenerating earlier. However, intrinsic evidence for such a link between healthy aging and development in brain structure remains elusive. Here, we show that a data-driven analysis of brain structural variation across 484 healthy participants (8-85 y) reveals a largely--but not only--transmodal network whose lifespan pattern of age-related change intrinsically supports this model of mirroring development and aging. We further demonstrate that this network of brain regions, which develops relatively late during adolescence and shows accelerated degeneration in old age compared with the rest of the brain, characterizes areas of heightened vulnerability to unhealthy developmental and aging processes, as exemplified by schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, respectively. Specifically, this network, while derived solely from healthy subjects, spatially recapitulates the pattern of brain abnormalities observed in both schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. This network is further associated in our large-scale healthy population with intellectual ability and episodic memory, whose impairment contributes to key symptoms of schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Taken together, our results suggest that the common spatial pattern of abnormalities observed in these two disorders, which emerge at opposite ends of the life spectrum, might be influenced by the timing of their separate and distinct pathological processes in disrupting healthy cerebral development and aging, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom; douaud@fmrib.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gwenaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Douaud
authors.affiliation: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Adrian R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Groves
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Life-Span Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Christian K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Tamnes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0317 Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, 0424 Oslo, Norway;
authors.forename: Lars Tjelta
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Westlye
authors.affiliation: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Eugene P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Duff
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Life-Span Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Engvig
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Life-Span Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Kristine B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Walhovd
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, 68167 Heidelberg, Germany;
authors.forename: Achim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gass
authors.affiliation: Memory Clinic, University Center for Medicine of Aging Basel, Felix Platter-Hospital, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland; and.
authors.forename: Andreas U
authors.initials: AU
authors.lastname: Monsch
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Research Group for Life-Span Changes in Brain and Cognition, Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: Anders M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fjell
authors.affiliation: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom;
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Johansen-Berg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010802:Phylogeny; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology; D012984:Software; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; aging; brain structure; development; schizophrenia