TY  - JOUR
AU  - Liu, Kathy Y.
AU  - Kievit, Rogier A.
AU  - Tsvetanov, Kamen A.
AU  - Betts, Matthew J.
AU  - Düzel, Emrah
AU  - Rowe, James B.
AU  - Howard, Robert
AU  - Hämmerer, Dorothea
TI  - Noradrenergic-dependent functions are associated with age-related locus coeruleus signal intensity differences
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - [London]
PB  - Nature Publishing Group UK
M1  - DZNE-2020-01431
SP  - 1712
PY  - 2020
AB  - The locus coeruleus (LC), the origin of noradrenergic modulation of cognitive and behavioral function, may play an important role healthy ageing and in neurodegenerative conditions. We investigated the functional significance of age-related differences in mean normalized LC signal intensity values (LC-CR) in magnetization-transfer (MT) images from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) cohort - an open-access, population-based dataset. Using structural equation modelling, we tested the pre-registered hypothesis that putatively noradrenergic (NA)-dependent functions would be more strongly associated with LC-CR in older versus younger adults. A unidimensional model (within which LC-CR related to a single factor representing all cognitive and behavioral measures) was a better fit with the data than the a priori two-factor model (within which LC-CR related to separate NA-dependent and NA-independent factors). Our findings support the concept that age-related reduction of LC structural integrity is associated with impaired cognitive and behavioral function.
KW  - Adolescent
KW  - Adrenergic Neurons: physiology
KW  - Adult
KW  - Aged
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Aging: genetics
KW  - Aging: physiology
KW  - Behavior: physiology
KW  - Biobehavioral Sciences
KW  - Cognition: physiology
KW  - Cognitive Aging: physiology
KW  - Cohort Studies
KW  - Female
KW  - Humans
KW  - Latent Class Analysis
KW  - Locus Coeruleus: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Locus Coeruleus: physiology
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Magnetoencephalography
KW  - Male
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Neurodegenerative Diseases: genetics
KW  - Young Adult
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C2  - pmc:PMC7136271
C6  - pmid:32249849
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-15410-w
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/153434
ER  -