Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have shown age and neurological disease affect iron concentrations in the deep gray matter (DGM). However, it is unknown whether iron accumulation occurs independently across DGM regions or in inter-regional patterns, i.e. “iron networks”. Here, we identified two highly reproducible, inter-regional DGM iron networks by applying independent component analysis (ICA) to quantitative susceptibility maps (QSM) from healthy volunteers. Areas of network overlap had relatively high iron concentrations and each network was related to separate environmental variables, indicating they have independent mechanisms of iron change. Our results advance the understanding of brain iron physiology.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.