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Neuroradiological characterization of normal adult ageing

¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, ² Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, California, USA

Correspondence: Adolf Pfefferbaum, MD, Director, Neuroscience Program, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. E-mail: dolf{at}synapse.sri.com

This paper provides a review of MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) findings in normal ageing as an essential context for evaluating imaging in dementia, and adding to the ever-growing number of such overviews. An additional extensive literature details the physics, MR acquisition, image reconstruction and mathematical computation approaches to both imaging modalities. The aim of this review is to illustrate how MR imaging modalities, spanning structural and diffusion tensor imaging, are suitable for visualizing and quantifying the macrostructural and microstructural disruptions sustained by the brain in normal ageing and to recognize the importance of normative data for identifying abnormalities characterizing neurodegenerative diseases and other conditions affecting brain tissue integrity.