Head size, age and gender adjustment in MRI studies: a necessary nuisance?
Head size, age and gender adjustment in MRI studies: a necessary nuisance?
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.06.025
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发表时间：
2010-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
Fox, Nick C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barnes, Josephine;Ridgway, Gerard R.;Fox, Nick C.
脑容量的成像研究通常会调整年龄等因素，这些因素可能会混淆受试者之间的比较。然而，在影像学研究中使用有害协变量是不一致的，这可能使跨研究结果的解释变得困难。利用78名健康对照者的磁共振图像，我们评估了年龄、性别、头部大小和扫描仪升级对感兴趣区域（ROI）体积、皮质厚度和基于体素的形态测量（VBM）测量的影响。我们发现这些变量和体积测量之间存在许多显著的关联：大脑体积和皮质厚度随着年龄的增长而下降，男性的体积比女性大，而厚度比女性小，头部大小的增加与体积的增加有关。大多数roi与水头体积之间的关系是非线性的。在一个模型中，我们发现体积和厚度随着年龄的增长而下降，女性的体积比男性大（VBM，全脑和白质体积），头部大小的增加与体积的增加有关，但与皮质厚度无关，扫描仪升级对厚度和一些体积测量有影响。性别对脑皮质厚度的影响在调整了头大小、年龄和等级后表现出不显著的影响（女性比男性低），而头大小的独立影响则表现出不明显的规律。我们得出结论，在ROI体积研究中应考虑年龄和头部大小，在皮质厚度研究中应考虑年龄、性别和升级，在VBM分析中需要考虑所有变量。由于它们的非比例关系，按水头大小划分所有体积不太可能是适当的。(C) 2010爱思唯尔公司版权所有。
Imaging studies of cerebral volumes often adjust for factors such as age that may confound between-subject comparisons. However the use of nuisance covariates in imaging studies is inconsistent, which can make interpreting results across studies difficult. Using magnetic resonance images of 78 healthy controls we assessed the effects of age, gender, head size and scanner upgrade on region of interest (ROI) volumetry, cortical thickness and voxel-based morphometric (VBM) measures. We found numerous significant associations between these variables and volumetric measures: cerebral volumes and cortical thicknesses decreased with increasing age, men had larger volumes and smaller thicknesses than women, and increasing head size was associated with larger volumes. The relationships between most ROIs and head size volumes were non-linear. With age, gender, head size and upgrade in one model we found that volumes and thicknesses decreased with increasing age, women had larger volumes than men (VBM, whole-brain and white matter volumes), increasing head size was associated with larger volumes but not cortical thickness, and scanner upgrade had an effect on thickness and some volume measures. The effects of gender on cortical thickness when adjusting for head size, age and upgrade showed some non-significant effect (women>-men), whereas the independent effect of head size showed little pattern. We conclude that age and head size should be considered in ROI volume studies, age, gender and upgrade should be considered for cortical thickness studies and all variables require consideration for VBM analyses. Division of all volumes by head size is unlikely to be adequate owing to their non-proportional relationship. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.