2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Subdivision brain capacity measurement and the aging with 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20790883
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Radiation science
Research Institution	The University of Tokyo
Principal Investigator	GOTO Masami The University of Tokyo, 医学部・附属病院, 診療放射線技師 (30375844)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	MRI / 3.0T / 老化 / VBM / 海馬
Research Abstract	T1-weighted magnetic resonance images of healthy adults divided into eight groups by age and gender were obtained to analyze brain volume change. Significantly smaller gray matter volume was observed in the hippocampus bilaterally in females aged in their fifties (fifty one of 59 females were at menopause) compared to females in their forties (the only three of 46 females were at menopause), with voxel-based morphometry (VBM). However, No significant difference were found between the female groups in fifties vs sixties, sixties vs seventies, or the male groups in forties vs fifties, fifties vs sixties, sixties vs seventies. The results of our study suggest that the menopause may be associated with hippocampal volume reduction.