Approved Research

Assessing the clinical value of brain age in different brain diseases

Lay summary

In contrast to chronological age, biological age is the rate at which an individual is aging physically. Brain age, as a type of biological age, is estimated for brain ageing often by using brain MRI, and it is especially crucial because cognitive decline that significantly impacts the quality of life in elderly people is mainly related to brain ageing. A model for estimating brain age can be constructed by applying different algorithms to model healthy individuals' age as a function of various brain MRI properties. Given such a brain age estimation model, estimated brain age for an individual represents how fast or slowly your brain is aging compared with other individuals with the same age. In the context, individuals with brain diseases often show higher brain age than their chronological age, representing accelerated brain ageing for them.

Although brain age is considered a promising marker of brain ageing in healthy and pathological ageing, there would be a need to better understand the meaning of brain age in individual brain diseases or across different brain diseases. In the current project, we seek to assess the clinical value of brain age by examining differences in brain aging status represented by brain age between different brain diseases. Specifically, we are planning to (1) develop a model for accurate brain age estimation and (2) apply the brain age estimation model to different brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and stroke. Based on a better understanding of brain age according to brain diseases, we hope that brain age can be developed as a summary indicator of brain health for individuals with brain diseases as well as healthy individuals.