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Aging-Related Spatial Changes in the Microstructure of the Human Striatum Detected Through Quantitative MRI in vivo
Elior Drori1, Shir Filo1, and Aviv Mezer1
1The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
We developed a robust non-invasive method for characterization of spatial and aging-related changes in the human striatum, in vivo. We demonstrate how iron content and tissue density underlie distinct aging effects along axes of the striatum.

Microstructural gradients in the striatum show aging-related changes.

(A) R1 functions along the main axes of the caudate (left) and putamen (right), averaged across 20 young adults and 18 older adults. Shaded area = ±1 SEM.

(B) Interhemispheric asymmetry is shown for 3 axes of the caudate and putamen, averaged across young and older adults. Asymmetry is defined as within-subject mean difference (MAE) between the left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere 1/R1 functions [ms]. Shaded area = ±1 STD.

Different qMRI parameters show distinct spatial and aging-related changes.

(A) Representative axial slices of R1, MTV and R2* mappings, showing sensitivity to myelin, non-water content and iron concentration, respectively. (B) Spatial variability profiles of the different qMRI parameters along the anterior-posterior (left), ventral-dorsal (middle) and medial-lateral (right) axes of the putamen. Averaged across young (N=17) and older adults (N=16). Shaded area is ± 1 SEM.