J 2024

Development of white matter in young adulthood: The speed of brain aging and its relationship with changes in fractional anisotropy

JÁNI, Martin; Radek MAREČEK and Klára MAREČKOVÁ

Basic information

Original name

Development of white matter in young adulthood: The speed of brain aging and its relationship with changes in fractional anisotropy

Authors

JÁNI, Martin; Radek MAREČEK and Klára MAREČKOVÁ

Edition

Neuroimage, SAN DIEGO, ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, 2024, 1053-8119

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Article in a journal

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

References:

URL

Marked to be transferred to RIV

Yes

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14110/24:00137415

Organization

Lékařská fakulta – Repository – Repository

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120881

UT WoS

001333898300001

EID Scopus

2-s2.0-85205454033

Keywords in English

Brain aging; Fractional anisotropy; White matter development; Cingulum; Superior longitudinal fasciculus; Sex differences

Links

EF17_043/0009632, research and development project. GM24-12183M, research and development project. LM2018121, research and development project. LM2018129, research and development project. LQ1601, research and development project. LX22NPO5107, research and development project. NU20J-04-00022, research and development project.
Changed: 10/6/2025 00:50, RNDr. Daniel Jakubík

Abstract

In the original language

White matter (WM) development has been studied extensively, but most studies used cross-sectional data, and to the best of our knowledge, none of them considered the possible effects of biological (vs. chronological) age. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal multimodal study of WM development and studied changes in fractional anisotropy (FA) in the different WM tracts and their relationship with cortical thickness-based measures of brain aging in young adulthood. A total of 105 participants from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC) prenatal birth cohort underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the age of 23-24, and the age of 28-30 years. At both time points, FA in the different WM tracts was extracted using the JHU atlas, and brain age gap estimate (BrainAGE) was calculated using the Neuroanatomical Age Prediction using R (NAPR) model based on cortical thickness maps. Changes in FA and the speed of cortical brain aging were calculated as the difference between the respective variables in the late vs. early 20s. We demonstrated tractspecific increases as well as decreases in FA, which indicate that the WM microstructure continues to develop in the third decade of life. Moreover, the significant interaction between the speed of cortical brain aging, tract, and sex on mean FA revealed that a greater speed of cortical brain aging in young adulthood predicted greater decreases in FA in the bilateral cingulum and left superior longitudinal fasciculus in young adult men. Overall, these changes in FA in the WM tracts in young adulthood point out the protracted development of WM microstructure, particularly in men.
Displayed: 3/5/2026 09:08