title: A voxel-based morphometric study of age- and sex-related changes in white matter volume in the normal aging brain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To carry out a cross-sectional study of 187 cognitively normal Chinese adults using the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approach to delineate age-related changes in the white matter volume of regions of interest in the brain and further analyze their correlation with age.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 187 cognitively normal adults were divided into the young, middle, and old age-groups. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging was performed with the Achieva 3.0 T system. Structural images were processed using VBM8 and statistical parametric mapping 8. Regions of interest were obtained by WFU PickAtlas, and all realigned images were spatially normalized.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Females showed significantly greater total white matter volume than males (t=2.36, P=0.0096, false-discovery rate [FDR] corrected). VBM demonstrated statistically significant age-related differences in white matter volume between the young age-group and the middle age-group (P<0.05, FDR corrected) and between the middle age-group and the old age-group (P<0.05, FDR corrected). No interaction was found between age and sex on white matter volume (P<0.05, FDR corrected). Logistic regression analysis revealed nonlinear correlation between total white matter volume and age (R (2)=0.124, P<0.001). White matter volume gradually increased before 40 years of age, peaked around 50 years of age, and rapidly declined after 60 years of age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant age-related differences are present in white matter volume across multiple brain regions during aging. The VBM approach may help differentiate underlying normal neurobiological aging changes of specific brain regions from neurodegenerative impairments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Haijing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zuojun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qingfeng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ruiting
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Huandi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lv
keywords: ROI; aging; brain; magnetic resonance imaging; voxel-based morphometry; white matter volume