Precision estimates of longitudinal brain aging capture unexpected individual differences in one year.

Abstract

Longitudinal studies are required to measure individual differences in human brain aging, but are challenging over short intervals due to measurement error. Using cluster scanning, an approach that reduces error by densely repeating rapid structural scans, we assess brain aging in individuals across three timepoints in one year. Cluster scanning substantially improves the precision of individualized estimates, revealing previously undetectable individual differences in brain change. In just one year, we detect expected differences in the rates of brain aging between younger and older individuals, as well as differences between cognitively unimpaired and impaired individuals. Cognitively unimpaired older individuals variably reveal relative brain maintenance, unexpectedly rapid decline, and asymmetrical changes. We observe these atypical brain aging trajectories across structures and verify them in independent within-individual test-retest data. Cluster scanning promises to advance our understanding of the marked heterogeneity in brain aging by affording better short-term tracking of individual variability in structural change.