Neuroimaging Morphometry in Healthy Adults: Integrating Brain Tortuosity With Volume and Thickness Analysis in the EHBS Cohort
Author(s)
Nan, Xi
Advisor(s)
Qiu, Deqiang
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to:
Permanent Link
Abstract
This study explores brain tortuosity as a potentially new neuroanatomical descriptor in addition to cortical thickness and gray matter volume to study aging effects and brain-cognition relationship in cognitively normal adults from the Emory Healthy Brain Study (EHBS) cohort. We hypothesized that regional brain tortuosity would demonstrate significant associations with established morphological measures—namely, grey matter volume and cortical thickness—independent of age and sex. Additionally, we examined the relationship between brain tortuosity and other conventional morphological measures with cognitive function, assessed via the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). While cortical thickness showed no significant correlation with tortuosity, a robust and significant association was observed between grey matter volume and tortuosity. Furthermore, tortuosity did not correlate significantly with age but did exhibit significant sex-related differences. In contrast, age was more closely associated with both grey matter volume and cortical thickness. Finally, MoCA scores were moderately predicted by grey matter volume, cortical thickness, and age, but not by tortuosity, suggesting that brain tortuosity has limited relevance in predicting cognitive performance in this cohort. Collectively, these findings partially support our hypothesis: while brain tortuosity is indeed associated with certain morphological measures—specifically, grey matter volume—this relationship appears to be independent of age but influenced by sex. Brain tortuosity captures variations in the aging effects in brain morphology after controlling for the effects of cortical thickness and volume.
Sponsor
Date
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Undergraduate Research Option Thesis