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A Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

George Bartzokis, MD; Mace Beckson, MD; Po H. Lu, MA; Keith H. Nuechterlein, PhD; Nancy Edwards, MA; Jim Mintz, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58:461-465.

Background  Imaging and postmortem studies provide converging evidence that, beginning in adolescence, gray matter volume declines linearly until old age, while cerebrospinal fluid volumes are stable in adulthood (age 20-50 years). Given the fixed volume of the cranium in adulthood, it is surprising that most studies observe no white matter volume expansion after approximately age 20 years. We examined the effects of the aging process on the frontal and temporal lobes.

Methods  Seventy healthy adult men aged 19 to 76 years underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Coronal images focused on the frontal and temporal lobes were acquired using pulse sequences that maximized gray vs white matter contrast. The volumes of total frontal and temporal lobes as well as the gray and white matter subcomponents were evaluated.

Results  Age-related linear loss in gray matter volume in both frontal (r = -0.62, P<.001) and temporal (r = -0.48, P<.001) lobes was confirmed. However, the quadratic function best represented the relationship between age and white matter volume in the frontal (P<.001) and temporal (P<.001) lobes. Secondary analyses indicated that white matter volume increased until age 44 years for the frontal lobes and age 47 years for the temporal lobes and then declined.

Conclusions  The changes in white matter suggest that the adult brain is in a constant state of change roughly defined as periods of maturation continuing into the fifth decade of life followed by degeneration. Pathological states that interfere with such maturational processes could result in neurodevelopmental arrests in adulthood.

From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (Dr Bartzokis and Mr Lu), and the Mental Health Service Line, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (Dr Bartzokis), Little Rock; the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, Calif (Drs Bartzokis, Beckson, and Mintz, Mr Lu, and Ms Edwards); and the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles (Drs Bartzokis, Beckson, Nuechterlein, and Mintz and Ms Edwards).

Corresponding author and reprints: George Bartzokis, MD, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, 2200 Fort Roots Dr, Bldg 170, (116A/NLR), North Little Rock, AR 72114 (e-mail: gbar{at}ucla.edu).