Changes in Voxel-wise Gray Matter Asymmetry over Time

Florian Kurth^1*Nicolas Cherbuin²Christian Gaser³Eileen Luders¹

• ¹The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
• ²Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
• ³Universitatsklinikum Jena, Jena, Germany

Hemispheric brain asymmetries emerge in early life but continue to change over time. However, there is no consensus on whether asymmetries become weaker or stronger with age or which brain regions are most affected. Here, we set out to further explore age-related changes in brain asymmetry, with a particular focus on voxel-wise gray matter asymmetry. For this purpose, we selected a sample of 2,322 participants (1,150 women / 1,172 men), aged between 47 and 80 years (mean 62.3 years), from the UK Biobank. Each participant was scanned twice; with an interval between baseline and follow-up scans ranging between 1 and 7 years (mean 2.4 years). Significant changes in asymmetry were observed, particularly in the temporal and occipital lobe, as well as the cerebellum. Overall, decreases in asymmetry were more prominent than increases, but with hemisphere-specific effects (i.e., leftward asymmetries decreased more than increased, while rightward asymmetries increased more than decreased). Changes in asymmetry were not significantly associated with chronological age or biological sex, suggesting that these changes neither accelerate nor decelerate with increasing age, and do not differ between the sexes. Follow-up research – potentially incorporating additional morphometric measures, different stages of life, and/or clinical populations – is necessary, not only to replicate the current findings but also to investigate changes over longer timeframes.