Brain imaging and behavior
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Brain Imaging Behav · Dec 2016
Correlating quantitative tractography at 3T MRI and cognitive tests in healthy older adults.
This study used diffusion tensor imaging tractography at 3 T MRI to relate cognitive function to white matter tracts in the brain. Brain T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery-weighted and diffusion tensor 3 T MRI scans were acquired in thirty-three healthy participants without mild cognitive impairment or dementia. They completed a battery of neuropsychological tests including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Stroop test, Trail Making Test B, Wechsler Memory Scale-III Longest span forward, Wechsler Memory Scale-III Longest span backward, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, California Verbal Learning Test Version II Long Delay Free Recall, and Letter Number Sequencing. ⋯ Worse scores on the Stroop test was associated with decreased FA of the corpus callosum, corticospinal/bulbar tract, and thalamic projection tracts. Scores on the other cognitive tests were not associated with either the FA or MD of measured tracts. In healthy persons the Stroop test appears to be a better predictor of the microstructural integrity of white matter tracts measured by DTI tractography than other cognitive tests.