Altered Brain Function in Elderly -- MEDICA - World Forum for Medicine

Altered Brain Function in Elderly

Photo: Brain

Leukoaraiosis, also called small
vessel ischemia and often referred
to as unidentified bright objects
on brain scans;©
Peter Eggermann

"There has been a lot of controversy over these commonly identified abnormalities on MRI scans and their clinical impact," said Doctor Kirk M. Welker. "In the past, leukoaraiosis has been considered a benign part of the aging process, like gray hair and wrinkles."

Leukoaraiosis, also called small vessel ischemia and often referred to as unidentified bright objects or "UBOs" on brain scans, is a condition in which diseased blood vessels lead to small areas of damage in the white matter of the brain. The lesions are common in the brains of people over the age of 60, although the amount of disease varies among individuals.


The patients were imaged in an MRI scanner as they performed a semantic decision task by identifying word pairs and a visual perception task that involved differentiating straight from diagonal lines. fMRI is a special type of magnetic resonance imaging that measures metabolic changes in an active part of the brain.


"Different systems of the brain respond differently to disease," Welker explained. "White matter damage affects connections within the brain's language network, which leads to an overall reduction in network activity."

He pointed out that identifying leukoaraiosis in the brain is important, both for individual patients undergoing brain mapping for surgery or other treatments and for research studies.
