MRI and Decline of Aging Aviator Performance

这项提案的目标是确定一个人是否可以改进“真实世界”中与年龄相关的衰退模型。 ‘，通过在模型中添加对纵向脑体积变化的评估来完成认知任务。我们会收集 参加我们正在进行的纵向飞行的100名飞行员的纵向结构MRI数据 对飞行员表现的研究：60名年龄在55岁或以上的受试者将分别接受三次扫描 跨度为四年(Y0、Y2、Y4)。一半的样本将具有载脂蛋白E(APOE)epsilon 4等位基因 (E4携带者)，阿尔茨海默病的遗传风险因素。我们的主要假设是： 通过纵向MR体积测量评估的年化萎缩速度可以解释 飞行模拟器性能下降速度的个体差异，超出以下解释 衡量处理速度和工作记忆、APOE e4载体状态和飞行经验。我们 还将检查基线磁共振措施是否与纵向磁共振措施一样有用，以达到以下目的 更早地识别有衰退风险的个体。 海马区和额叶的体积测量将是MR在初发区的预测指标 假设，因为我们的观点是，安全地驾驶飞机到预定的目的地涉及对 路线和多任务处理能力。主要的结果衡量标准是飞行总结分数的下降率， 使用高度量化的飞行模拟器测试，涉及多任务。 几年来，我们一直在关注一群年纪较大的小型飞机飞行员在 量化飞行模拟器。数据清楚地显示了年龄对表现的影响；然而，有大量的 飞行员的表现随时间的异质性。我们建议通过以下方式增强我们的预测值集 增加了高度量化的磁共振容量测量方法，以更好地解释谁以及如何功能下降 十八九。

The goal of this proposal is to determine if one can improve models of age-related decline on a "real world" ',ognitive task by adding assessments of longitudinal brain volume changes to the model. We will collect longitudinal structural MRI data on a subset of the 100+ aviators participating in our ongoing longitudinal study of pilot performance: 60 subjects, 55 years of age or older, will be scanned three times each across a span of four years (Y0, Y2, Y4). Half of the sample will possess an Apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon 4 allele (e4 carriers), a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Our primary hypotheses are: Annualized rate of atrophy, as assessed by longitudinal MR volumetric measures, can account for individual differences in the rate of decline in flight simulator performance, beyond that explained by measures of processing speed and working memory, APOE e4 carrier status, and aviation experience. We will also examine whether baseline MR measures are as useful as longitudinal MR measures, for the aim of ach ev ng earl er identification of individuals at risk of decline. Volumetric measures of hippocampus and frontal lobe will be the MR predictors in the primary hypothesis, as our perspective is that safely flying an airplane to its intended destination involves memory for routes and multi-tasking skills. The primary outcome measure is rate of decline in flight summary scores, using a highly quantified flight simulator test involving multi-tasking. For several years we have been following a group of older small-aircraft pilots' performance in a quantified flight simulator. Data clearly show effects of age on performance; however, there is substantial heterogeneity in performance over time among aviators. We propose to enhance our set of predictors by the addition of highly quantified MR volumetric measures to better explain in whom and how functional decline OCCU rs.