Atlas55+: Creation and Validation of a Reference Brain Functional Atlas for Late Adulthood

项目总结 老年人占美国人口的15%，预计到2050年这一比例将超过20%。 因此，我们必须提高对健康脑老化的生理学的理解。 可能导致老年人功能障碍的机制。众所周知，大脑的功能是 组织成多个相互作用的网络。脑功能的可靠和重复性鉴定 网络的关键在于参考功能地图集的使用。广泛的文献表明 大脑连接体的空间和功能组织显示出在晚年生活中与年龄相关的变化。 然而，目前还没有来自老年人的参考脑功能图谱，这可能会破坏 神经影像研究在成年后期的效度和可靠性。使用该应用程序的试点数据，我们展示了 适合年龄的脑功能图谱将改善对脑功能的描述 连接体及其与成年后期认知的联系。在此上下文中，此应用程序的目标是构建 并验证了第一个55岁以上健康成年人的参考脑功能图谱。要实现 对此，我们将使用静息状态功能磁共振成像(rs-fmri)从三个大的、独立的 和公开可用的神经成像数据集。我们的第一个目标(目标1)是生成一个参考地图集，名为 “Atlas55+”，使用目前可从剑桥老龄化中心获得的最大的RS-fMRI数据集 神经科学(CamCAN)资料库(n=326)。我们将分两个阶段演示Atlas 55+的可复制性 来自阿尔茨海默病神经成像的老年健康参与者的独立大样本 倡议(ADNI，n=200)和西南大学成人寿命数据集(n=191)(目标2)。因为 平均而言，女性的预期寿命比男性更长，我们将测试老年女性是否显示出大脑 与年龄较大的男性相比，网络差异更大。在出现显著性别差异的情况下，我们将创造第一个 老年人特定性别的脑功能图谱(目标3)。第四，我们将展示其优越性 来自Atlas55+的网络连接功能与基于年轻人数据的地图集进行了比较 在预测健康老年人和迷你智力中流体智力的更大差异方面 阿尔茨海默病或轻度认知障碍患者的状态检查分数(目标4)。这个 该项目的成功完成将为年龄在10岁以上的成年人提供首个可靠的脑功能图谱 55年，将向其他研究人员免费提供。通过绘制大脑功能连接组 在成年后期，这项工作有可能解释大脑网络的功能障碍 会导致神经退行性疾病。

PROJECT SUMMARY Older individuals represent 15% of the United States population, and this is expected to exceed 20% by 2050. It is therefore critical that we improve our understanding of the physiology of healthy brain aging and the mechanisms that may lead to dysfunction in older people. It is well accepted that the brain is functionally organized into multiple interacting networks. The reliable and reproducible identification of brain functional networks crucially depends on the use of reference functional atlases. Extensive literature has demonstrated that the spatial and functional organization of the brain connectome shows age-related alterations in later life. Yet, there is currently no reference brain functional atlas derived from older adults, and this may undermine the validity and reliability of neuroimaging research in late adulthood. Using pilot data for this application, we show that an age-appropriate brain functional atlas will improve the characterization of the brain functional connectome and its links to cognition in late adulthood. In this context, the aim of this application is to construct and validate the first reference brain functional atlas in healthy adults above the age of 55 years. To achieve this, we will use resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) from three large, independent and publicly available neuroimaging datasets. Our first aim (Aim 1) is to generate a reference atlas, called “Atlas55+”, using the largest rs-fMRI dataset currently available from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (CamCAN) repository (n=326). We will demonstrate the replicability of Atlas55+ in two independent large samples of older healthy participants derived from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI, n=200) and the Southwest University Adult Lifespan Dataset (n=191) (Aim 2). Because women, on average, have a longer life expectancy than men, we will test whether older women show brain network differences compared to older men. In the event of significant sex differences, we will create the first sex-specific brain functional atlases in older adults (Aim 3). Fourth, we will demonstrate the superiority of network connectivity features derived from Atlas55+ compared to an atlas based on data from younger people in predicting a greater amount of the variance in fluid intelligence in healthy older adults and in Mini Mental Status Examination score in patients with Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment (Aim 4). The successful completion of this project will provide the first reliable brain functional atlas for adults over the age of 55 years which will be made freely available to other researchers. By mapping the brain functional connectome underlying late adulthood, this work has the potential to elucidate how dysfunction of the brain networks contributes to neurodegenerative conditions.