Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27648
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Brain white matter tract integrity and cognitive abilities in community-dwelling older people: The Lothian Birth Cohort, 1936
Author(s): Booth, Tom
Bastin, Mark E
Penke, Lars
Maniega, Susana Muñoz
Murray, Catherine
Royle, Natalie A
Gow, Alan J
Corley, Janie
Henderson, Ross D
Valdés Hernández, Maria del C
Starr, John M
Wardlaw, Joanna M
Deary, Ian J
Keywords: Cognitive ability
tractography
white matter integrity
bifactor model
Issue Date: 30-Sep-2013
Date Deposited: 9-Aug-2018
Citation: Booth T, Bastin ME, Penke L, Maniega SM, Murray C, Royle NA, Gow AJ, Corley J, Henderson RD, Valdés Hernández MdC, Starr JM, Wardlaw JM & Deary IJ (2013) Brain white matter tract integrity and cognitive abilities in community-dwelling older people: The Lothian Birth Cohort, 1936. Neuropsychology, 27 (5), pp. 595-607. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033354
Abstract: Objective The present study investigates associations between brain white matter tract integrity and cognitive abilities in community-dwelling older people (N = 655). We explored two potential confounds of white matter tract−cognition associations in later life: (a) whether the associations between tracts and specific cognitive abilities are accounted for by general cognitive ability (g); and (b) how the presence of atrophy and white matter lesions affect these associations. Method Tract integrity was determined using quantitative diffusion magnetic resonance imaging tractography (tract-averaged fractional anisotropy [FA]). Using confirmatory factor analysis, we compared first-order and bifactor models to investigate whether specific tract-ability associations were accounted for by g. Results Significant associations were found between g and FA in bilateral anterior thalamic radiations (r range: .16−.18, p < .01), uncinate (r range: .19−.26, p < .001), arcuate fasciculi (r range: .11−.12, p < .05), and the splenium of corpus callosum (r = .14, p < .01). After controlling for g within the bifactor model, some significant specific cognitive domain associations remained. Results also suggest that the primary effects of controlling for whole brain integrity were on g associations, not specific abilities. Conclusion Results suggest that g accounts for most of, but not all, the tract−cognition associations in the current data. When controlling for age-related overall brain structural changes, only minor attenuations of the tract−cognition associations were found, and these were primarily with g. In totality, the results highlight the importance of controlling for g when investigating associations between specific cognitive abilities and neuropsychology variables.
DOI Link: 10.1037/a0033354
Rights: This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s).
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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