Cognitive and Physiologic Correlates of Subclinical Structural Brain Disease in Elderly Healthy Control Subjects

Abstract
STRUCTURAL CHANGES of the brain are widely thought to be an inherent part of aging, with significant atrophy and white matter changes reported in 30% to 100% of the healthy elderly population.1,2 These changes seem to be related not only to age, but also to physical illnesses (eg, hypertension, diabetes mellitus3,4). They reach their highest prevalence in patients who have dementia,5 depression,6 and other neuropsychiatric disorders.7 Nevertheless, these structural features are not invariably associated with illness and are considered by some to be features of normal aging.1,8