DunedinPACNI estimates the longitudinal Pace of Aging from a single brain image to track health and disease

Ethan T Whitman; Maxwell L Elliott; Annchen R Knodt; Wickliffe C Abraham; Tim J Anderson; Nicholas J Cutfield; Sean Hogan; David Ireland; Tracy R Melzer; Sandhya Ramrakha; Karen Sugden; Reremoana Theodore; Benjamin S Williams; Avshalom Caspi; Terrie E Moffitt; Ahmad R Hariri

doi:10.1038/s43587-025-00897-z

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DunedinPACNI estimates the longitudinal Pace of Aging from a single brain image to track health and disease

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DunedinPACNI estimates the longitudinal Pace of Aging from a single brain image to track health and disease

Ethan T Whitman, Maxwell L Elliott, Annchen R Knodt, Wickliffe C Abraham, Tim J Anderson, Nicholas J Cutfield, Sean Hogan, David Ireland, Tracy R Melzer, Sandhya Ramrakha, …

Nature aging

01/07/2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00897-z

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https://hdl.handle.net/10523/46843

Appears in The Dunedin Study

Abstract

neural ageing

predictive markers

To understand how aging affects functional decline and increases disease risk, it is necessary to develop measures of how fast a person is aging. Using data from the Dunedin Study, we introduce an accurate and reliable measure for the rate of longitudinal aging derived from cross-sectional brain magnetic resonance imaging, that is, the Dunedin Pace of Aging Calculated from NeuroImaging (DunedinPACNI). Exporting this measure to the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, UK Biobank and BrainLat datasets revealed that faster DunedinPACNI predicted cognitive impairment, accelerated brain atrophy and conversion to diagnosed dementia. Faster DunedinPACNI also predicted physical frailty, poor health, future chronic diseases and mortality in older adults. When compared to brain age gap, DunedinPACNI was similarly or more strongly related to clinical outcomes. DunedinPACNI is a next-generation brain magnetic resonance imaging biomarker that can help researchers explore aging effects on health outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness of antiaging strategies.

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Record Identifier: 9926753151101891
Title: DunedinPACNI estimates the longitudinal Pace of Aging from a single brain image to track health and disease
Creators: Ethan T Whitman
Maxwell L Elliott
Annchen R Knodt
Wickliffe C Abraham
Tim J Anderson
Nicholas J Cutfield
Sean Hogan
David Ireland
Tracy R Melzer
Sandhya Ramrakha
Karen Sugden
Reremoana Theodore
Benjamin S Williams
Avshalom Caspi
Terrie E Moffitt
Ahmad R Hariri
Publication Details: Nature aging
Academic Unit: Medicine (DSM); Psychology; Medicine (UOC); Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit (DMHDRU)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Grants: A lifecourse study on ageing processes to inform early intervention strategies , 16/604, Health Research Council of New Zealand (New Zealand, Auckland) - HRC
Grant note: MR/X021149/1 / Medical Research Council; R01AG073207, R01AG032282, R01AG049789 / U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (NIH), National Institute on Aging
Date published ; e-published: 01/07/2025
Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s) 2025. This work was first published in Nature Aging (Nature Portfolio). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided that the original work is properly attributed to the creator(s) and the source, a link to the Creative Commons license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.
Language: English
Resource Type ; Subtype: Journal article