Cortical thickness, gray matter volume and cognitive performance: a cross-sectional study of the moderating effects of age on their inter-relationships

Abstract

In a sample comprising younger, middle-aged and older cognitively healthy adults (N = 375), we examined associations between mean cortical thickness, gray matter volume (GMV) and performance in four cognitive domains - memory, speed, fluency and crystallized intelligence. In almost all cases, the associations were moderated significantly by age, with the strongest associations in the older age group. An exception to this pattern was identified in a younger adult sub-group aged less than 23 yrs, when a negative association between cognitive performance and cortical thickness was identified. Other than for speed, all associations between structural metrics and performance in specific cognitive domains were fully mediated by mean cognitive ability. Cortical thickness and GMV explained unique fractions of the variance in mean cognitive ability, speed and fluency. In no case, however, did the amount of variance jointly explained by the two metrics exceed 7% of the total variance. These findings suggest that cortical thickness and GMV are distinct correlates of domain-general cognitive ability, that the strength and, for cortical thickness, the direction of these associations is moderated by age, and that these structural metrics offer only limited insights into the determinants of individual differences in cognitive performance across the adult lifespan.