Research In Different Areas Of The Cingulate Cortex During Brain Aging With Rs-fMRI

Objective: Age-related brain atrophy is the most common chronic disease in middle-aged period.Aging progress in our country makes us realizing the importance of brain atrophy,and we should focus on that.The resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging(rs-f MRI),especially amplitude of low-frequently fluctuation(ALFF)and functional connection(FC),was used to study different areas of cingulate cortex between old and young people in the resting state condition.Methods: The subjects meeting standards were divided into two groups: the young group including 60 participants(23 males,37 females,age range from 22 to 31 years,average age: 26.2±1.9 years);the elderly group including 61 participants(23 males,38 females,age range from 45 to 65 years,average age:52.6±5.9 years).With resting state f MRI scanning,the different areas' data of the cingulate cortex(AAL)were processed by functional magnetic resonance image processing software(DPARSF,SPM,REST),then we could get results and did some statistical analysis.We observed the elderly and young's brain activities from different areas of cingulate cortex whether there was any difference(P<0.01).At last,the ALFF and FC results after two sample T test respectively were superimposed on the T2 WI image with software,and we observed statistically significant activities,MNI coordinates,the size of the clusters,and t-value.Results: 1 The results of ALFF:1)Under resting state,the cingulate cortex(according to AAL)when elderly group compared with young group was not increased or decreased as a whole in different areas.It could be found statistically significant decreased masses in most regions from the result of elderly group than young group.But the result did not apply to the subregions of 33 and 34.2)The ALFF was significantly decreased in some areas of cingulate cortex(31,32,35,36)when elderly group compared with young group.The ALFF was not significantly changes in some areas of cingulate cortex(33,34).2 The results of FC:The cingulate cortex(according to AAL)connected with the whole brain was different in different subregions when elderly group compared with young group.Statistically significant decreased brain areas were listed as follows:1)Left anterior cingulate(31): bilateral cerebellar posterior lobe,right parahippocampal gyrus,left superior temporal gyrus,right lingual gyrus,right corpus callosum,right insula,precuneus;2)Right anterior cingulate(32): left cerebellar posterior lobe,right parahippocampal gyrus,bilateral superior temporal gyrus,right insula,right frontal lobe,precuneusus;3)Left middle cingulate(33): right cerebellar posterior lobe,left superior temporal gyrus,right cerebellar anterior lobe,left parahippocampal gyrus,right inferior frontal lobe,right inferior occipital gyrus,corpus callosum,right superior frontal gyrus;4)Right middle cingulate(34): bilateral superior temporal gyrus,right parahippocampal gyrus,corpus callosum;5)Left posterior cingulate(35): bilateral parahippocampal gyrus,left corpus callosum;6)Right posterior cingulate(36): right superior temporal gyrus,corpus callosum.Conclusion:1 Under resting state,the cingulate cortex when elderly group compared with young group(along with the age)is not increased or decreased as a whole in different areas,with the method of ALFF.It could be found statistically significant decreased masses in anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus(31,32,35,36)from the result of elderly group than young group.But the result do not apply to the subregions of middle cingulate(33,34).It proves that anterior and posterior cingulate are involved firstly along with the age,and the middle cingulate is less involved.2 Under resting state,the cingulate cortex connected with the whole brain is different in different subregions when elderly group compared with young group,with the method of FC.Different areas of the brain partly are located in default mode network(DMN).It proves that different subregions of cingulate gyrus are involved DMN basically.The age-related brain atrophy has negative effects on the function of the brain.