Aging in brain is accompanied by changes in brain vasculature such as increased stiffness of vascular wall and reduced blood supply, potentially important factors in affecting cognition. Furthermore, although functional neuroimaging techniques have provided tremendous insight into the adaptability of the aging brain, the fMRI signal relies upon an indirect signal--changes in oxygenation and blood flow--to detect intensity of neural activation across different sites. It is likely that age differences in vascular health affect blood flow and thereby change fMRI signals independent of the neural changes, which complicates the interpretation of fMRI results. Until recently, it has been difficult to assess vascular health in the brain in a detailed manner. Recently, new imaging techniques have become available (some developed by the Principal Investigator) that allow a quantitative assessment of vascular health in the same session that functional imaging data is collected. The present proposal seeks to utilize these new techniques to collect detailed measures of vascular health from a large lifespan study of neurocognitive function currently being conducted by Denise Park at the University of Texas at Dallas and as UT Southwestern Medical Center. These measures of vascular health will be related to both functional activation patterns and cognitive measures of behavior, allowing us to determine in a definitive way the role that vascular healthy plays in mediating BOLD signal and cognitive function across the lifespan.
The specific aims of the proposal are: 1. Measure cerebral blood flow, cerebral vessel reactivity, and basal venous oxygenation across the lifespan. 2. Determine the role of vascular health in cognitive function. 3. Examine how the BOLD signal in functional imaging of cognitive tasks is modified by the vascular measures. These data will be fundamentally important in advancing our theoretical interpretation of the meaning of functional activation changes observed in neuroimaging studies across the lifespan.

Public Health Relevance

An important aspect of brain aging is the microscopic changes of the blood vessels. These changes will affect the brain health by limiting blood supply which is key to the functioning of neuron. In this project, different aspects of brain vascular health will be assessed using advanced MRI technologies and the results will be compared to cognitive changes across the adult lifespan.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21AG034318-01
Application #
7712630
Study Section
Cognition and Perception Study Section (CP)
Program Officer
Wagster, Molly V
Project Start
2009-09-15
Project End
2011-08-31
Budget Start
2009-09-15
Budget End
2010-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$180,912
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas Sw Medical Center Dallas
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
800771545
City
Dallas
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
75390
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Liu, Peiying; Lu, Hanzhang; Filbey, Francesca M et al. (2014) Automatic and reproducible positioning of phase-contrast MRI for the quantification of global cerebral blood flow. PLoS One 9:e95721
Peng, Shin-Lei; Dumas, Julie A; Park, Denise C et al. (2014) Age-related increase of resting metabolic rate in the human brain. Neuroimage 98:176-83
Liu, Peiying; Hebrank, Andrew C; Rodrigue, Karen M et al. (2013) Age-related differences in memory-encoding fMRI responses after accounting for decline in vascular reactivity. Neuroimage 78:415-25
Thomas, Binu P; Yezhuvath, Uma S; Tseng, Benjamin Y et al. (2013) Life-long aerobic exercise preserved baseline cerebral blood flow but reduced vascular reactivity to CO2. J Magn Reson Imaging 38:1177-83
Liu, Peiying; Xu, Feng; Lu, Hanzhang (2013) Test-retest reproducibility of a rapid method to measure brain oxygen metabolism. Magn Reson Med 69:675-81
Liu, Peiying; Hebrank, Andrew C; Rodrigue, Karen M et al. (2013) A comparison of physiologic modulators of fMRI signals. Hum Brain Mapp 34:2078-88
Hutchison, Joanna L; Lu, Hanzhang; Rypma, Bart (2013) Neural mechanisms of age-related slowing: the ?CBF/?CMRO2 ratio mediates age-differences in BOLD signal and human performance. Cereb Cortex 23:2337-46
Tung, Kuang-Chi; Uh, Jinsoo; Mao, Deng et al. (2013) Alterations in resting functional connectivity due to recent motor task. Neuroimage 78:316-24
Yezhuvath, Uma S; Uh, Jinsoo; Cheng, Yamei et al. (2012) Forebrain-dominant deficit in cerebrovascular reactivity in Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiol Aging 33:75-82

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