Abstract
Accurate knowledge of adult human brain volume (BV) is critical for studies of aging- and disease-related brain alterations, and for monitoring the trajectories of neural and cognitive functions in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury. This scoping meta-analysis aggregates normative reference values for BV and three related volumetrics—gray matter volume (GMV), white matter volume (WMV) and cerebrospinal fluid volume (CSFV)—from typically-aging adults studied cross-sectionally using magnetic resonance imaging. Drawing from an aggregate sample of 9,473 adults, this study provides (A) linear regression coefficients β describing the age-dependent trajectories of volumetric measures by sex within the range from 20 to 70 years, and (B) average values for BV, GMV, WMV and CSFV at the representative ages of 20 (young age), 45 (middle age) and 70 (old age). The results provided synthesize ∼20 years of brain volumetrics research and allow one to estimate BV at any age between 20 and 70. Guidelines are proposed to facilitate future meta- and mega-analyses of brain volumetrics.
Disclosure statement The author declares that he has no actual or potential conflicts of interest.
Abbreviations
- AD
- Alzheimer’s disease BV brain volume
- CSF
- cerebrospinal fluid
- CSFV
- cerebrospinal fluid volume
- CT
- computed tomography
- F
- females
- GM
- gray matter
- GMV
- gray matter volume
- ICV
- intracranial volume
- M
- males
- MRI
- magnetic resonance imaging
- PD
- Parkinson’s disease
- SPM
- statistical parametric mapping
- TBI
- traumatic brain injury
- VBM
- voxel-based morphometry
- WM
- white matter
- WMV
- white matter volume