Background: Cognitive impairment and dementia among elderly adults is a pressing public health issue in China but research on biomarkers of cognitive decline has been limited.
Aim: Explore the relationship between multiple domains of cognitive functioning and the volume of the left and right hippocampus in healthy elderly adults.
Methods: Structural MRI scanning was performed on 65 community-dwelling healthy participants 65 to 75 years of age using the Siemens 3.0 T Trio Tim with the MPRAGE sequence. The volumes of the left and right hippocampus were determined using Freesurfer software. Cognitive functioning was evaluated using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Both unadjusted and adjusted associations between the hippocampal volumes and cognitive functioning were estimated.
Results: Within this relatively narrow age range, age was significantly associated with most of the cognitive measures assessed in women but was not significantly associated with any of the cognitive measures in men. In both men and women right hippocampal volume was positively associated with delayed memory and left hippocampal volume was positively associated with both immediate memory and delayed memory (though the relationship with delayed memory in women was only at a trend level). After adjustment for age, gender, and years of formal education (the variable that was most strongly associated with all of the cognitive measures), both left hippocampal volume and right hippocampal volume were positively associated with delayed memory, but not with immediate memory. Interestingly, the difference in the volumes of the left and right hippocampi was negatively associated with the score of the RBANS attention subscale, a relationship that was stronger in women than in men.
Conclusions: This study confirms previous work about the relationship of hippocampal volume and memory, identifies a possible relationship between attention and the difference in size of the two hippocampi, and suggests that there may be some differences in these relationships by gender.
背景: 在中国老年人认知功能障碍及痴呆是一个紧迫 的公共卫生问题，但对认知能力下降的生物学指标的 研究极其有限。
目的: 探索健康老人多个领域的认知功能与左右侧海 马体积之间的关系。
方法: 使用配有MPRAGE 序列的西门子3.0 T Trio Tim 磁共振扫描仪对65 名65 至75 岁的社区健康受试者进 行结构成像扫描。采用Freesurfer 软件来确定左右侧海 马的体积。使用可重复的神经心理状态成套检查（Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status，RBANS）对认知功能进行评价。评估海马体积 与认知功能之间未调整和调整后的相关性。
结果: 在这一相对狭窄的年龄段中，女性的年龄与大 多数认知功能评估结果显著相关，但男性中年龄与任 何认知评估结果都不相关。无论是男性还是女性，右 侧海马体积与延迟记忆呈正相关，而左侧海马体积与 即刻记忆和延迟记忆均呈正相关（虽然在女性中与延 迟记忆只有相关的趋势）。经调整年龄、性别和受教 育年数（该变量与所有认知评估结果的相关性最强） 后，左右侧海马体积均与延迟记忆呈正相关，但与即 刻记忆无关联。有趣的是，左右侧海马的体积之差与 RBANS 注意分量表得分呈负相关，女性中该相关性要 强于男性。
结论: 本研究证实了先前关于海马体积和记忆之间相 关性的研究工作，提出了注意力和两侧海马体积差异 可能存在关联，并表明海马体积和记忆的相关性存在 一些性别差异。
Keywords: AMSTAR; China; elderly adults; executive function; hippocampal volume.