Age-related volume loss in thalamic nuclei: sex-specific patterns and blood pressure associations
Poster No:
938
Submission Type:
Late-Breaking Abstract Submission
Authors:
Peter Sörös1, Pierrick Coupé2, José Manjón3, J. Kevin Shoemaker4, Vladimir Hachinski4
Institutions:
1Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany, 2Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France, 3Universitat Politècnica de València, València, Spain, 4Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
The thalamus, an important subcortical structure comprising functionally distinct nuclei, undergoes significant structural changes during aging. Recently, the differential vulnerability of individual thalamic nuclei to age-related volume loss has been highlighted (Choi et al., 2022; Pfefferbaum et al., 2023). The potential influence of blood pressure (BP) on thalamic integrity has not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to characterize the trajectory of nucleus-specific thalamic volume changes across the adult lifespan and examine the relationship between BP and thalamic volumes in older adults.
Methods:
We analyzed T1w MPRAGE images of all 652 participants of the Cambridge Centre for Ageing Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) study, Stage 2 (Shafto et al., 2014; Taylor et al., 2017). MR images were acquired on a 3 T Siemens TIM Trio scanner (voxel size 1 × 1 × 1 mm³). Thalamic volumes were determined with DeepThalamus (https://volbrain.net/services/DeepThalamus), a multimodal volumetric deep neural network for thalamic segmentation at ultra-high resolution using superresolved T1w and synthetic white matter nulled images (Ruiz-Perez et al., 2024). Bilateral thalamic volumes (left and right combined) were normalized to intracranial volume (ICV) as assessed by Deep ICE (Manjón et al., 2020). The % annual volume loss was calculated for women and men using a linear regression model; raw and corrected p-values after false discovery rate (FDR) control are presented.
We also calculated partial Spearman's correlation coefficients between a) the systolic and diastolic BP and b) the relative thalamic volumes, corrected for individual age, in a subgroup of participants (BP available, ≥60 years). We calculated one-tailed p-values (raw and FDR-controlled), only considering negative correlations between BP and relative volumes. Statistical analyses were performed with R.
We also calculated partial Spearman's correlation coefficients between a) the systolic and diastolic BP and b) the relative thalamic volumes, corrected for individual age, in a subgroup of participants (BP available, ≥60 years). We calculated one-tailed p-values (raw and FDR-controlled), only considering negative correlations between BP and relative volumes. Statistical analyses were performed with R.
Results:
For thalamic atrophy across the adult lifespan, we analyzed the data of 330 women and 320 men (median age: 54 years, 18 - 88 years), after the exclusion of 2 participants with inaccurate thalamic segmentations. Fig. 1 shows the reduction of relative thalamic volumes during the adult life. The total thalamus loses 0.37% of its volume per year in women and 0.42% in men (no significant difference between women and men). The lateral geniculate is the thalamic nucleus with the highest annual volume reduction: 0.92% in women and 0.97% in men (no significant difference between women and men). Significant differences between women and men in annual volume reduction were found for the medial geniculate, ventral anterior, ventral lateral anterior, and ventral posterior lateral nuclei. The significant difference in ventral posterior lateral nucleus volume survived FDR control (p = 0.021, Fig. 2).
For the investigation of the effect of BP on the reduction of thalamic volumes, we analyzed the data of 114 women and 115 men (median age: 73 years, 60 - 88 years). There was a significant negative partial correlation between lateral geniculate nucleus volume and systolic (rho = -0.21, raw p = 0.01) and diastolic BP (rho = -0.24, raw p = 0.005) in women. In addition, there was a significant negative partial correlation between pulvinar volume and diastolic BP in women (rho = -0.17, raw p = 0.04). These significant differences did not survive FDR control. No significant correlations were found in men.
For the investigation of the effect of BP on the reduction of thalamic volumes, we analyzed the data of 114 women and 115 men (median age: 73 years, 60 - 88 years). There was a significant negative partial correlation between lateral geniculate nucleus volume and systolic (rho = -0.21, raw p = 0.01) and diastolic BP (rho = -0.24, raw p = 0.005) in women. In addition, there was a significant negative partial correlation between pulvinar volume and diastolic BP in women (rho = -0.17, raw p = 0.04). These significant differences did not survive FDR control. No significant correlations were found in men.
Conclusions:
Our findings reveal substantial heterogeneity in age-related volume loss across thalamic nuclei, with the lateral geniculate nucleus (visual) showing particularly pronounced atrophy. The observed sex differences in the rate of volume reduction in specific nuclei, notably the ventral posterior lateral nucleus (somatosensory), suggest distinct aging trajectories in women and men. The negative associations between blood pressure and thalamic volumes, specifically affecting the lateral geniculate and pulvinar in women, indicate potential sex-specific vulnerability to cardiovascular risk factors in late life.
Lifespan Development:
Aging 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Segmentation and Parcellation
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Subcortical Structures 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
Anatomical MRI
Keywords:
Aging
NORMAL HUMAN
Open Data
Segmentation
STRUCTURAL MRI
Sub-Cortical
Thalamus
Other - Hypertension; Blood Pressure
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Abstract Information
By submitting your proposal, you grant permission for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to distribute your work in any format, including video, audio print and electronic text through OHBM OnDemand, social media channels, the OHBM website, or other electronic publications and media.
The Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) is introducing a reproducibility challenge for OHBM 2025. This new initiative aims to enhance the reproducibility of scientific results and foster collaborations between labs. Teams will consist of a “source” party and a “reproducing” party, and will be evaluated on the success of their replication, the openness of the source work, and additional deliverables. Click here for more information. Propose your OHBM abstract(s) as source work for future OHBM meetings by selecting one of the following options:
Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel? NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel? NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Provide references using APA citation style.
Manjón, J.V. (2020). Deep ICE: a deep learning approach for MRI intracranial cavity extraction. arXiv:2001.05720.
Pfefferbaum, A. (2023). Multi-atlas thalamic nuclei segmentation on standard T1-weighed MRI with application to normal aging. Human Brain Mapping, 44(2), 612-628.
Ruiz-Perez, M. (2024). DeepThalamus: A novel deep learning method for automatic segmentation of brain thalamic nuclei from multimodal ultra-high resolution MRI. arXiv:2401.07751.
Shafto, M.A. (2014). The Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) study protocol: a cross-sectional, lifespan, multidisciplinary examination of healthy cognitive ageing. BMC Neurology, 14, 204.
Taylor, J.R. (2017). The Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) data repository: structural and functional MRI, MEG, and cognitive data from a cross-sectional adult lifespan sample. Neuroimage, 144(Pt B), 262-269.