Hippocampal volume
DEHippocampusvolumen
Hippocampal volume measures the size of the hippocampus. That is the brain region central to memory consolidation and spatial navigation. Atrophy rates vary by cohort and method. Meta-analyses report roughly 0.5 to 1.4% per year in cognitively normal people. That speeds up to about 3.5 to 4% per year in Alzheimer's disease. MRI-derived volume is an early biomarker of cognitive aging. Aerobic exercise has been shown to preserve, or even enlarge, your hippocampus (Erickson et al. 2011, PNAS). And separate lines of evidence link your sleep quality and chronic stress to its structure.
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Sources
- Raz N, Lindenberger U, Rodrigue KM, Kennedy KM, Head D, Williamson A, Dahle C, Gerstorf D, Acker JD. (2005). Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: general trends, individual differences and modifiers. Cerebral Cortexdoi:10.1093/cercor/bhi044
- Erickson KI, Voss MW, Prakash RS, Basak C, Szabo A, Chaddock L, Kim JS, Heo S, Alves H, White SM, Wojcicki TR, Mailey E, Vieira VJ, Martin SA, Pence BD, Woods JA, McAuley E, Kramer AF. (2011). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesdoi:10.1073/pnas.1015950108