White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are commonly seen in older adults and are associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia, though the mechanism by which WMH cause cognitive decline are incompletely characterized. In this study, we estimated changes in the structural connectome due WMH with aging using WMH lesion frequency maps derived from a population based study as regions of avoidance for DTI tractography on healthy subject DTI data. We found that subcortical connections to frontal cortex are affected in the 50’s and 60’s, with more widespread disconnection increasing more rapidly in the 70’s and 80’s. However, even in the oldest subjects, most edges were only partially disconnected.
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