Comprehensive Longitudinal Probabilistic Atlas of the Brain of Older Adults Without Dementia

摘要 一份代表非痴呆症老年人大脑的全面数字图谱还没有 建造的。绝大多数的脑部磁共振成像(MRI)研究现在都集中在 关于非痴呆老年人的脑功能特征在支持机制中的作用 认知健康或导致认知衰退，最终目标是制定预防策略 认知障碍。由磁共振模板和语义标签组成的人脑图谱提供了关键的 在神经成像中的作用，主要是为了促进空间归一化和自动分割 体素、感兴趣区域和网络分析。提高诊断的敏感性和特异度 对非痴呆性老年人的神经成像研究需要一套全面的高分辨率成像图谱。 代表被调查个人大脑特征的质量模板，并详细说明 标签准确地描绘了大脑感兴趣的区域。然而，这样的地图集并不是为 非痴呆症老年人的大脑。仅为少数人生成了老化大脑的可用模板 MRI形式(主要是T1加权MRI)，其中几种包括痴呆症患者的信息，几乎都是 基于年龄范围很广的少数人，一些人的素质较低，没有一人包括 个别参与者，都缺少与衰老有关的重要信息，都缺乏详细的灰色和 白质标签。因此，神经成像工具在很大程度上限制了准确性和 增加了非痴呆老年人这一关键群体的MRI研究的复杂性。 拟议工作的目标是编制一份高质量、全面、纵向、概率的地图集 没有痴呆症的老年人的大脑。我们最近开发并发布了NIH资助的IIT ICBM-152太空中用于青年大脑的人脑图谱(v.4.1)，因其 全套脑部模板、最先进的扩散张量和高角分辨率扩散 成像(Hardi)模板、概率灰质标签和基于概率Hardi连通性的白色 物质标签。此外，我们已经收集了大量井的多模式脑MRI数据- 通过我们在纵向流行病学临床-病理方面的工作，表现出非痴呆症老年人的特征 拉什阿尔茨海默病中心关于衰老的队列研究。因此，我们建议利用我们的a) 脑图谱开发方面的专业知识，以及b)关于一个大型社区队列的可用的多模式磁共振数据 特点良好的非痴呆症老年人，以发展高质量、多渠道、纵向、 非痴呆症老年人大脑的概率图谱。这项工作的圆满完成将为 四是一组强大的资源，将大大提高MRI的准确性并降低其复杂性 对非痴呆症老年人这一关键群体的调查。新的资源将具有长期的 对预防认知障碍和促进健康老龄化和生活质量的影响。

ABSTRACT A comprehensive digital atlas representative of the brain of older adults without dementia has not been constructed. An overwhelming number of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies are now focusing on older adults without dementia to elucidate the role of brain characteristics in the mechanisms supporting cognitive health or leading to cognitive decline, with an ultimate goal to develop strategies for prevention of cognitive impairment. Human brain atlases consisting of MRI templates and semantic labels serve a critical role in neuroimaging, by mainly facilitating spatial normalization and automated segmentation for the purposes of voxel-wise, region-of-interest, and network analyses. Increasing the sensitivity and specificity of neuroimaging research on older adults without dementia requires an atlas with a comprehensive set of high- quality templates representative of the brain characteristics of the individuals under investigation, and detailed labels accurately mapping brain regions of interest. However, such an atlas has not been constructed for the brain of older adults without dementia. Available templates of the aging brain have been generated for only few MRI modalities (mainly T1-weighted MRI), several include information from demented individuals, almost all are based on small numbers of persons with a wide age-range, some are of low quality, none includes data on the individual participants, all are missing important information pertinent to aging, and all lack detailed gray and white matter labels. Thus, there is a major gap in neuroimaging tools substantially limiting the accuracy and increasing the complexity of MRI investigations in the critical group of non-demented older adults. The objective of the proposed work is to develop a high-quality, comprehensive, longitudinal, probabilistic atlas of the brain of older adults without dementia. We have recently developed and released the NIH-funded IIT Human Brain Atlas (v.4.1) for the young adult brain in ICBM-152 space, rapidly attracting attention for its comprehensive set of brain templates, state-of-the-art diffusion tensor and high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) templates, probabilistic gray matter labels, and probabilistic HARDI connectivity-based white matter labels. Furthermore, we have already collected multimodal brain MRI data on a large number of well- characterized older adults without dementia through our work in longitudinal, epidemiologic clinical-pathologic cohort studies of aging at Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center. Therefore, we propose to leverage our a) expertise in brain atlas development, and b) available multimodal MRI data on a large community cohort of well-characterized non-demented older persons, in order to develop a high-quality, multi-channel, longitudinal, probabilistic atlas of the brain of older adults without dementia. Successful completion of this work will bring forth a powerful set of resources that will substantially increase the accuracy and reduce the complexity of MRI investigations in the critical group of older adults without dementia. The new resources will have long-term implications in prevention of cognitive impairment and promotion of healthy aging and quality of life.