Hippocampus and amygdala volumes in a random community-based sample of 60–64 year olds and their relationship to cognition

Maller, Jerome J.; Anstey, Kaarin J.; Réglade-Meslin, Chantal; Christensen, Helen; Wen, Wei; Sachdev, Perminder

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.06.005

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 156, Issue 3 , Pages 185-197, 15 December 2007

Hippocampus and amygdala volumes in a random community-based sample of 60–64 year olds and their relationship to cognition

Jerome J. Maller
- Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
- Corresponding author. Centre for Mental Health Research, Building 63, Eggleston Road, Australian National University, Acton ACT 0200, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 6125 1030; fax: +61 2 6125 0733.
Kaarin J. Anstey
- Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Chantal Réglade-Meslin
- Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Helen Christensen
- Centre for Mental Health Research, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Wei Wen
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, and Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Perminder Sachdev
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, and Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Received 5 May 2005; received in revised form 8 December 2005; accepted 21 June 2007.

Abstract

Reduced volumes of the hippocampus (HC) and amygdala (AG) are potential biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Published studies on HC and AG volumes suffer from methodological limitations, and a valid and reliable normative database does not exist. This study aimed to establish a database of HC and AG volumes from a large community sample of participants 60–64 years old and relate them to cognition. A total of 452 randomly selected participants (from 622 approached) were retained in the study (238 males, 214 females), and all received brain MRI scans, as well as cognitive and physical assessments. HC and AG volumes were estimated from manual tracings on T1-weighted images, and intracranial volume (ICV) was obtained from an automated program. In both sexes, right hippocampi were larger than left, while left amygdalae were larger than right. The only correlation to remain significant after normalization was left HC volume and percent retention of a word list in females. This study provides a HC and AG volumetrics database and describes its relationship with cognitive performance in a representative sample using a standard methodology that will be a reference for future studies. It will therefore have clinical applicability in early AD and other disorders.

Keywords: Hippocampus, Amygdale, MRI, Volumetrics, Sex, Memory