Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to examine the age-related changes in white matter structural integrity in the common chimpanzee. Fractional Anisotropy(FA), a measure derived from the diffusion tensor data is sensitive to developmental and pathological changes in axonal density, myelination, size and coherence of organization of fibers within a voxel and thus reflects the white matter structural integrity. There is substantial evidence that white matter structural integrity decreases with age in humans. The long-term goal of this study is to compare the age-related changes in the white matter structural integrity among humans and chimpanzess to provide potential insights into the unique features of human aging. Different methods, including Region Of Interest (ROI) analysis, Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) are used to describe age-related changes in FA in a group of 21 chimpanzees. Strengths and limitations of these methods were discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/28156 |
| Date | 15 April 2009 |
| Creators | Errangi, Bhargav Kumar |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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