The integrity of the cholinergic system plays a central role in cognitive decline both in normal aging and neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease and vascular cognitive impairment. Most of the previous neuroimaging research has focused on the integrity of the cholinergic basal forebrain, or its sub-region the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM). Tractography using diffusion tensor imaging data may enable modelling of the NBM white matter projections. We investigated the contribution of NBM volume, NBM white matter projections, small vessel disease (SVD), and age to performance in attention and memory in 262 cognitively normal individuals (39-77 years of age, 53% female). We developed a multimodal MRI pipeline for NBM segmentation and diffusion-based tracking of NBM white matter projections, and computed white matter hypointensities (WM-hypo) as a marker of SVD. We successfully tracked pathways that closely resemble the spatial layout of the cholinergic system as seen in previous post-mortem and DTI tractography studies. We found that high WM-hypo load was associated with older age, male sex, and lower performance in attention and memory. A high WM-hypo load was also associated with lower integrity of the cholinergic system above and beyond the effect of age. In a multivariate model, age and integrity of NBM white matter projections were stronger contributors than WM-hypo load and NBM volume to performance in attention and memory. We conclude that the integrity of NBM white matter projections plays a fundamental role in cognitive aging. This and other modern neuroimaging methods offer new opportunities to re-evaluate the cholinergic hypothesis of cognitive aging.

• Klíčová slova
• Basal forebrain, Cholinergic system, Cognition, Magnetic resonance imaging, Normal aging, Small vessel disease,
• MeSH
• bílá hmota anatomie a histologie   diagnostické zobrazování   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• nervové dráhy anatomie a histologie   diagnostické zobrazování   MeSH
• nucleus basalis Meynerti anatomie a histologie   diagnostické zobrazování   MeSH
• paměť fyziologie   MeSH
• pars basalis telencephali anatomie a histologie   diagnostické zobrazování   MeSH
• pozornost fyziologie   MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• sexuální faktory MeSH
• stárnutí fyziologie   MeSH
• věkové faktory MeSH
• zobrazování difuzních tenzorů * MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH