A new method for quantification of age-related brain changes

A new method is proposed for quantification of age-related brain changes. The method includes calculating 3D volumetric texture descriptors, extracting principal components, and assessing the significance of brain changes using multivariate analysis techniques. Structural changes were evaluated using high resolution anatomical MRI-TI brain images of a group of 152 healthy subjects aged from 18 to 70 years (76 males and 76 females). The Talairach parcellation system was applied to study normal brain aging on four scale levels: the whole cerebrum, the nine coronal sections, the twelve axial sections, and 108 box-shaped sections resulting from both subdivisions. Statistical analysis has revealed significant brain deteriorations with age at different scale levels. Most of the brain regions are affected with a slight predominance in the frontal lobes. We concluded that 3D texture analysis followed by statistical evaluation procedures is a robust technique for detecting age-related changes in the anatomical MR images of the human brain.