Abstract Details

Title White Matter Microstructure and Language Functioning in Healthy Aging

Topic Behavioral Neurology

Presentation(s) P07 - (-)

Poster/Presentation
Number 158

Objective

Background BACKGROUND: Temporoparietal and frontal language regions connect via the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Diffusion tensor imaging studies examining fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of axonal integrity, find that white matter FA declines with normal aging. However, it remains unclear whether white matter degradation in the SLF is responsible for age-related cognitive changes in language functioning.

Design/Methods DESIGN/METHODS: Subjects included 112 right-handed volunteers (age 19-76). FreeSurfer's TRACULA (http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/Tracula) was used to reconstruct the SLF from diffusion weighted images. Mean FA values were extracted from parietal (SLFp) and temporal (SLFt) bundles of the left hemisphere. Language functioning was assessed by measures of receptive vocabulary (PPVT), confrontation naming (BNT), letter fluency (COWAT), and semantic fluency (SFT). Regression analyses assessed the relationship between age, gender, and FA from SLFt and SLFp. Language measures were then analyzed using age and FA as predictors separately for males and females and combined.

Results RESULTS: Results identified significant gender differences in SLFt FA (p<0.05), but not in the SLFp. Age did not predict FA in either SLF bundle. While males showed a gradual decline beginning in early adulthood, females showed a curvilinear trend with FA peaking at approximately age 40, before declining. For all subjects, greater SLFt FA was significantly associated with better COWAT performance and age predicted BNT performance. For males, greater SLFt FA was significantly associated with increased COWAT performance, and there was a positive relationship between both age and SLFp FA with BNT scores. In females, greater SLFp FA was related to decreased COWAT performance.

Conclusions CONCLUSIONS: White matter integrity of the SLF follows a different pattern of decline in adulthood for males and females, and this decline differentially affects language functioning.

Authors/Disclosures
PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Jerzy P. Szaflarski, MD, PhD, FAAN (University of Alabama At Birmingham)	Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for UCB Pharma. Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for LivaNova Inc. Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for PureTech Health. Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Gidley, Sarli & Marusak, LLP. Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as an Editor, Associate Editor, or Editorial Advisory Board Member for Elsevier. Dr. Szaflarski has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as an Expert Witness for Law Firm. Dr. Szaflarski has stock in AdCel Biopharma, LLC. Dr. Szaflarski has stock in iFovea.
Karin Rehberg-Weber	No disclosure on file

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