Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:52:55.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Normal regional variations: brain development and aging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

Peter B. Barker ,
Alberto Bizzi ,
Nicola De Stefano ,
Rao Gullapalli  and
Doris D. M. Lin
Peter B. Barker
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Alberto Bizzi
Affiliation:
Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan
Nicola De Stefano
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi, Siena
Rao Gullapalli
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Doris D. M. Lin
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Get access

Summary

Key points

  • Substantial regional variations in proton brain spectra exist; differences between gray and white matter, anterior–posterior gradients, and differences between the supra- and infra-tentorial brain are common.

  • Spectra change rapidly over the first few years of life; at birth, NAA is low, and choline and myo-inositol are high. By about 4 years of age, spectra from most regions have a more “adult-like” appearance.

  • In normal development, only subtle age-related changes are found between the ages of 4 and 20 years.

  • In normal aging, only subtle age-related changes are found. A recent meta-analysis indicated the most common findings are mildly increased choline and creatine in frontal brain regions of elderly subjects (> 68 years), and stable or slightly decreasing (parietal regions only) NAA.

Introduction

Interpretation of spectra from patients with neuropathology requires a knowledge of the normal regional and age-related spectral variations seen in the healthy brain. This is a difficult issue, since spectra are quite dependent on the technique used to record them (particularly choice of echo time, and field strength), and also show quite large regional and age-related (at least in young children) dependencies. However, while there still remain some gaps in the literature (e.g. detailed, regional studies in very young children), for the most part regional and age-related changes in brain spectra are now well-characterized. This chapter reviews what is known about regional metabolite variations, as well as metabolic changes associated with brain development, and aging.

Type
Chapter
Information
Clinical MR Spectroscopy
Techniques and Applications
 , pp. 51 - 60
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hetherington, HP, Mason, GF, Pan, JW, Ponder, SL, Vaughan, JT, Twieg, DB, et al. Evaluation of cerebral gray and white matter metabolite differences by spectroscopic imaging at 4.1 T. Magn Reson Med 1994; 32: 565–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreis, R, Ernst, T, Ross, BD. Absolute quantitation of water and metabolites in the human brain. II. Metabolite concentrations. J Magn Reson Ser B 1993; 102: 9–19.Google Scholar
Michaelis, T, Merboldt, KD, Bruhn, H, Hanicke, W, Frahm, J. Absolute concentrations of metabolites in the adult human brain in vivo: quantification of localized proton MR spectra. Radiology 1993; 187: 219–27.Google ScholarPubMed
Soher, BJ, Zijl, PC, Duyn, JH, Barker, PB. Quantitative proton MR spectroscopic imaging of the human brain. Magn Reson Med 1996; 35: 356–63.Google ScholarPubMed
Degaonkar, MN, Pomper, MG, Barker, PB. Quantitative proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging: regional variations in the corpus callosum and cortical gray matter. J Magn Reson Imaging 2005; 22: 175–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pouwels, PJ, Frahm, J. Regional metabolite concentrations in human brain as determined by quantitative localized proton MRS. Magn Reson Med 1998; 39: 53–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, PB, Szopinski, K, Horska, A. Metabolic heterogeneity at the level of the anterior and posterior commissures. Magn Reson Med 2000; 43: 348–54.3.0.CO;2-M>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, MA, Horska, A, Zijl, PC, Barker, PB. Quantitative proton MR spectroscopic imaging of normal human cerebellum and brain stem. Magn Reson Med 2001; 46: 699–705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breiter, SN, Arroyo, S, Mathews, VP, Lesser, RP, Bryan, RN, Barker, PB. Proton MR spectroscopy in patients with seizure disorders. Am J Neuroradiol 1994; 15: 373–84.Google ScholarPubMed
Vermathen, P, Laxer, KD, Matson, GB, Weiner, MW. Hippocampal structures: anteroposterior N-acetylaspartate differences in patients with epilepsy and control subjects as shown with proton MR spectroscopic imaging. Radiology 2000; 214: 403–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arslanoglu, A, Bonekamp, D, Barker, PB, Horska, A. Quantitative proton MR spectroscopic imaging of the mesial temporal lobe. J Magn Reson Imaging 2004; 20: 772–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charles, HC, Lazeyras, F, Krishnan, KRR, Boyko, OB, Patterson, LJ, Doraiswamy, PM, et al. Proton spectroscopy of human brain: effects of age and sex. Prog Neuro-Psychopharmacol Biol Psychiat 1994; 18: 995.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagae-Poetscher, LM, Bonekamp, D, Barker, PB, Brant, LJ, Kaufmann, WE, Horska, A. Asymmetry and gender effect in functionally lateralized cortical regions: a proton MRS imaging study. J Magn Reson Imaging 2004; 19: 27–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, EH, Basso, G, Barker, PB, Smith, MA, Bonekamp, D, Horska, A. Regional apparent metabolite concentrations in young adult brain measured by (1)H MR spectroscopy at 3 Tesla. J Magn Reson Imaging 2008; 27: 489–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huppi, PS, Posse, S, Lazeyras, F, Burri, R, Bossi, E, Herschkowitz, N. Magnetic resonance in preterm and term newborns: 1H-spectroscopy in developing brain. Pediatric Res 1991; 30: 574–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, H, Fujii, Y, Itoh, S, Matsuda, T, Iwasaki, T, Maeda, M, et al. Metabolic alterations in the neonate and infant brain during development: evaluation with proton MR spectroscopy. Radiology 1995; 194: 483–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreis, R, Ernst, T, Ross, BD. Development of the human brain: in vivo quantification of metabolite and water content with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Magn Reson Med 1993; 30: 424–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knaap, MS, Grond, J, Rijen, PC, Faber, JA J, Valk, J, Willemse, K. Age-dependent changes in localized proton and phosphorus MR spectrscopy of the brain. Radiology 1990; 176: 509–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pouwels, PJ, Brockmann, K, Kruse, B, Wilken, B, Wick, M, Hanefeld, F, et al. Regional age dependence of human brain metabolites from infancy to adulthood as detected by quantitative localized proton MRS. Pediatr Res 1999; 46: 474–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horska, A, Kaufmann, WE, Brant, LJ, Naidu, S, Harris, JC, Barker, PB. In vivo quantitative proton MRSI study of brain development from childhood to adolescence. J Magn Reson Imaging 2002; 15: 137–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christiansen, P, Toft, P, Larsson, HB W, Stubgaard, M, Henriksen, O. The concentration of N-acetyl aspartate, creatine+phosphocreatine, and choline in different parts of the brain in adulthood and senium. Magn Reson Imaging 1993; 11: 799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lim, KO, Spielman, DM. Estimating NAA in cortical gray matter with applications for measuring changes due to aging. Magn Reson Med 1997; 37: 372–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chang, L, Ernst, T, Poland, RE, Jenden, DJ. In vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the normal aging human brain. Life Sci 1996; 58: 2049.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundbom, N, Barnett, A, Bonavita, S, Patronas, N, Rajapakse, J, Tedeschi, Di Chiro G. MR image segmentation and tissue metabolite contrast in 1H spectroscopic imaging of normal and aging brain. Magn Reson Med 1999; 41: 841–5.3.0.CO;2-T>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haga, KK, Khor, YP, Farrall, A, Wardlaw, JM. A systematic review of brain metabolite changes, measured with (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopy, in healthy aging. Neurobiol Aging 2009; 30: 353–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maudsley, AA, Darkazanli, A, Alger, JR, Hall, LO, Schuff, N, Studholme, C, et al. Comprehensive processing, display and analysis for in vivo MR spectroscopic imaging. NMR Biomed 2006; 19: 492–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaiser, LG, Schuff, N, Cashdollar, N, Weiner, MW. Age-related glutamate and glutamine concentration changes in normal human brain: 1H MR spectroscopy study at 4 T. Neurobiol Aging 2005; 26: 665–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mascalchi, M, Brugnoli, R, Guerrini, L, Belli, G, Nistri, M, Politi, LS, et al. Single-voxel long TE 1H-MR spectroscopy of the normal brainstem and cerebellum. J Magn Reson Imaging 2002; 16: 532–7.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×