Age-related Changes in Human and Non-human Primate White Matter: from Myelination Disturbances to Cognitive Decline

Overview

Journal Age (Dordr)

Publisher Springer

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2011 Dec 29

PMID 22203458

Citations 73

Authors

Steven G Kohama

Douglas L Rosene

Larry S Sherman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The cognitive decline associated with normal aging was long believed to be due primarily to decreased synaptic density and neuron loss. Recent studies in both humans and non-human primates have challenged this idea, pointing instead to disturbances in white matter (WM) including myelin damage. Here, we review both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in humans and non-human primates that collectively support the hypothesis that WM disturbances increase with age starting at middle age in humans, that these disturbances contribute to age-related cognitive decline, and that age-related WM changes may occur as a result of free radical damage, degenerative changes in cells in the oligodendrocyte lineage, and changes in microenvironments within WM.

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