MRI-based morphological analysis of the adult brainstem during aging

摘要

The brainstem is a critical structure that possesses numerous neural nuclei,regulates vital autonomic functions,and closely related to many neurological disorders.The morphological changes of brainstem can reflect the condition of nuclei and might be early biomarkers of neurological disorders.We used strict brainstem segmentation criteria to manually segment 1.5T MRI of 187 normal adults aged from 19 to 70.There are obvious atrophy of volume of midbrain and medulla oblongata during aging process,and the pons was hardly changed.